ugust 1994 •Issue 103 • £3.60
UfOPRESS
PLUSi Computer porn update, STs in education, Diamond Back 3, Kobold, TrakCom
GASTEINER
Tel: 081-345 6000
Fax: 081-345 6868
540Mb
£599
All NEW GASTEINER
Hard Drive for Atari ST,
STFM, STE, MEGA ST,
MEGA STE & the
formidable FALCON
030.
Award winner for BEST
HARDWARE 1993 - ST
Review
The All NEW
GASTEINER Hard Drive
has all the following
features:
1, Auto Booting and
Auto Parking
2, Front On/Off switch
3, Power indicator
(LED) light
4, SCSI icon selector
switch
5, Sleeve bearing Fan
(17CFM)
6, Dual SCSI Port
7, Internal 5%
Tolerance P.S.U. (90-
260 VAC)
8, Top Quality
Formatting and
Partitioning Software
9, New Compact Case
(4.00x4.64x9.00)
(HxWxD)
10, 12 Months back to
base guarantee
Repair service
New service/centre for most Atari computers. We
offer a quotation service of £10 for which we will
examine your computer and report back with an
exact quotation price for the repair. If the repair is
carried out the £10 is then deducted from your bill.
GHD 40Mb
GHD 120Mb
GHD 170Mb
GHD 270Mb
GHD 340Mb
GHD 540Mb
GHD 1080Mb
GHD 1800Mb
:r hard dr
TT/FALC0N STE/STFM
P.O.A. P.O.A.
£229.00 £279.00
£259.00 £299.00
£349.00 £379.00
£399.00 £449.00
£599.00 £649.00
£899.00 £949.00
£1299.00 £1349.00
(1) EXPERIENCE
With over 20 man years experience in the Atari Computer market. Servicing
many happy customers (over 10,000) we are the foremost manufacturers of
Atari Hard Drives.
(2) DESIGN
Using the latest C.A.D. Technology we consider Power Supply design. Air
Flow characteristics and Drive Specifications, combined with innovative
manufacturing processes, ensure that we can produce the most reliable products
to the highest standards.
(3) TESTING
Following the initial design process all our products are subjected to an in-depth
testing procedure including mechanical and electrical tests while thermal Trials
ensure the reliability of any configuration in every possible environment.
NEW 200 DPI MOUSE. Small and
compact for all Atari ST range systems.
£6.99
Alfa Scan Plus £119.00
Alfa Scan OCR £139.00
System requirements 2Mb RAM +
Hard Drive
Mono Scanner for Falcon £99.00
Colour Scanner for Falcon £399.00
MICE+TRACKBALLS
• Pure Optical Design with High
Resolution
• Light, accurate, easy to use and long
life
• With tough pure optical mouse pad
Alfa Pen £34.95
Alfa Optic £29.95
Two colour illuminating crystal ball
(TKB MT AC ONLY).
• Ergonomic Design for very
comfortable operation.
• Top quality construction with micro
switch buttons.
Standard Trackball £29.95
Crystal Trackball £34.95
How to order
When ordering by telephone please quote your credit card number
followed by the expiry date and also your full name and address. If
paying by cheque please make it payable to Gasteiner Technology. In
any correspondence please quote a phone number and also a postal
code, please allow five working days for cheque clearance.
Delivery charges
Small consumables and software items under the value of £59 please add £3.50 P&P. Other
items except lasers, next day courier service £10 per box. Offshore and highlands, please
call for a quotation. In addition, we offer the following express services:- Saturday delivery
normal rate plus £15 per box, Morning, next day normal rate plus £10 per box. E&0E prices
subject to change without prior notice. All trademarks acknowledged.
ATARI COMPUTERS I ATARI MEMORY UPGRADES
SOFTWARE
ACCESSORIES
Atari 1040STE 1Mb
P.O.A
Atari 1040STE 2Mb
P.O.A
Atari 1040STE4Mb
P.O.A
Atari 1040STE 12Mb
P.O.A
Atari 520STFM 1Mb
P.O.A
FALCON 030 COMPUTERS
Falcon 030 1Mb P.O.A.
Falcon 030 4Mb P.O.A.
Falcon 030 4Mb + 85Mb HD P.O.A.
Falcon 030 14Mb + 85Mb HD....P.O.A.
Falcon 030 4Mb + 120Mb HD....P.O.A.
Falcon 030 14Mb + 120Mb HD..P.O.A.
Falcon 030 4Mb + 210Mb HD.... P.O.A.
Falcon 030 14Mb + 210Mb HD..P.O.A.
FPU for all the above Falcons
- Please call
culilkviiv
we make
Emagic Notator SL £279.00
Emagic Creator £179.00
Emagic Unitor II £230.00
Cubeat £150.00
Cubase Version 3 £319.00
Cubase Light £70.00
Notator Alpha £170.00
Cubase Audio P.O.A.
Steinberg Pro 24 HI £49.95
Musicom £43.95
FORGET ME-CLOCK II
CLOCK CARTRIDGE FOR
ST-STE- FALCON
Clock with Thruport P.O.A.
Clock no Thruport £11.95
INCREASE YOUR MEMORY
ST-STF-STFM-MEGA ST +
FALCON
Xtra-Ram Board 0Mb £24.95
512K to 1Mb £32.95
2Mb £75.00
4Mb £125.00
8Mb P.O.A.
14Mb Falcon £599.00
4Mb Falcon £149.00
1Mb Falcon £49.00
Virtual Memory £49.00
INCREASE YOUR MEMORY
FOR ATARI STE
COMPUTERS ONLY
1Mb £4.95
2Mb £50.00
4Mb £100
8Mb P.O.A.
FALCON INTERNAL HARD DRIYE
HIGH QUALITY INTERNAL
2.5" IDE HARD DRIVES FOR
THE FALCON, INCLUDING
MOUNTING BRACKET AND
IDE CABLE
65Mb
£139.00
85Mb
£149.00
120Mb
£199.00
170Mb
£239.00
209Mb
£299.00
350Mb
£349.00
Bracket for Hard Drive
£15.00
IDE Cable
£1500
Falcon Eagle Sonic 32
(32MHz) Accelerator for
Atari Falcon 030 £199.00
FALCON 030 EXTRAS
SCSI II Cables £34.95
ST Monitor Cable £15.00
SVGA Monitor Cable £15.00
Truepaint £33.95
Midi Cable £12.95
Stereo Speakers £29.95
Stereo Headphones £16.95
400DPI Mouse £19.95
Dust Cover £9.95
SCSI BARE HARD DRIVES
40Mb £99.00
85Mb £179.00
127Mb £199.00
170Mb £219.00
240Mb £249.00
540Mb £399.00
1.0 Gig £799.00
HI-SOFT PRODUCTS
THE CODERS MULTIPACK
(Programming)
Power Basic .^
Basic H
Tempus n
Devpac 2
£79.95
Normally
.00
£124,
THE HOME OFFICE
MULTD?ACK
(Business Applications)
K-Spread 2 .\
K-Graph 3 f £79.95
Personal Finance Mngr Plus J ^gg oc?'
THE MEDIA MULTD7ACK
(Video/Music)
Video Master
Colour Master
Replay Stereo
Concerto
£129
Normally
£229.00
THE DISK MULTD7ACK
(Utilities)
Diamond Edge
Knife ST
Diamond Back 2
Datalite2
£99.95
Normally
£144.00
NEW PRODUCTS
Papyrus £127.00
True Image £27.95
WORD PROCESSORS
Word Writer £45.00
1st Word Plus v3.2 £39.95
DTP SOFTWARE
Calamus 1.09 £95.00
Pagestream v2.2 £169.00
Timeworks Publisher £39.95
Calamus SL £199.00
O.C.R. Software £49.95
Touch-up Upgrade £27.95
Easydraw Supercharged £15.00
Cyber Studio £10.00
Cyber Control £5.00
Cyber Paint £5.00
ST-Basic £3.00
Human Design Disk £9.00
Future Design Disk £9.00
Signs + Banners £15.00
Calendar + Stationery £15.00
Art Library £15.00
Easy Tools £10.00
That's Fun Face £10.00
Family Curriculum Software £29.95
HITS AND PIECES
Internal Power Supply for Atari ST,
STF, STFM, STE £32.95
Internal Disk Drive £45.00
Keyboard £69.00
STE Motherboard P.O.A.
TOS 2.06 STE P.O.A.
Outer Casing STE, STFM £20.00
Twin Joystick Ext. Cable £3.50
Mono Colour Switchbox £14.95
Multisync Switchbox £29.95
Printer Cable £6.00
Modem Cable £6.00
Null Modem Cable £6.00
Serial Cable £6.00
Philips/Atari Cable £10.00
Scan Cable £10.00
3.5" External Disk Drive £50.00
Blitz Turbo £25.00
Power Cable £6.00
Mouse Mat (picture) £5.00
Box 10 Disks £4.00
Dust Covers (all sorts) £6.00
DMA Cable £6.00
SCSI Cable £6.00
Centronics to Centronics £10.00
Optical Mouse Mat £10.00
ST-TV Cable £10.00
Printer Switchbox £9.95
Auto Printer Switchbox £14.95
Disk Box (80 capacity) £6.95
Disk Box (100 capacity) £9.95
AUTOMOUSE-
JOYSTICK SWITCH
Allows you to instantly select either
your mouse or joystick by a simple
click on your mouse. You won't need to
fumble around under or behind your
computer to swap your mouse and
joystick cable ever again, and also it
saves your joystick port.
£9.95
BUIED YOUR OWN
HARD DRIVE FOR
ATARI COMPUTERS
Casing £35.00
45 Watt P.S.U £35.00
SCSI Cable £6.00
DMA Cable £6.00
Power Cable £6.00
SCSI to Centronics Cable £18.00
G.E. Soft Host Adaptor £59.95
SCSI n Cable for Falcon £34.95
Top Link Controller £75.00
MONITORS
Gasteiner GM148 with Sound...£129.00
Microvitec 1440 Multisync £389.00
Commodore 1084 SC Colour....£199.00
SVGA Mono for Falcon £120.00
Official purchase orders welcome from Educational establishments and major tprporales. (Strk
All prices include VAT. Prices and specifications subj without notjet
All goods under £50 please add £3.-50 p&p and all goods above £50 please add £10 Courier Ser
>r approval.
126 Fore Street, Upper Edmonton, London N18 2AX
Contents
>f the ST
idi and music,,,,,,,,,,, ,.,.. 78
Phil Morse shows you how to get high quality samples
for your ST without having to spend a fortune
UrJJrties,,, ,,., 8i
The start of a new regular column in which GOnter
Minnerup explores utilities and their uses
Communications 83
What's hot and what's not in the comms world. Steve
Gold reports on the latest developments in the field
DTP , , „.,.„.„.,
Andrew Wright puts the finishing touches to his
newsletter series
Business ,
How to reduce business costs and fend off potential
legal problems. Richard Williams explains
Falcon 89
Want to speed up your Falcon? John Hetherington ( I
shows how Warp speed technology can help
1 Atari ST User August 1 994
PAPER
v PIXELS
Our resident artist
explains some of the
traditional te€hniques
used to create pi€tures
and asks if they ean
be applied to
€omputer art
specials! Ireg u I ars
26 Hard Drives
7 News
A detailed look into the benefits of
owning a hard drive and the software
needed to get the most out of them
ELSPA Crime Unit's first private
prosecution of software pirate, Jaguar
sales success and more hot news
10 Euro News
A talking mouse, a plug in ST for PC
owners and other interesting develop-
ments from across the channel
12 CoverDisk
Video titling software, a boot manager,
an addictive two-player game and more
utilities await you on this month's disk
36 Comms for beginners
We explain in non-anorak terms what you
need to connect your ST to the mass of
data waiting at the end of the phone
40 Porn update
_, , Air your views and comment on all
Phil Morse returns to the subject of „. AQri T ^ mQnth |ndude
computer porn to look at how government CD-ROM and full priced games
officials and the law are dealing with it
48 Deutsch developers 44 Public Sector
39 Write Now
We pay a visit to German Atari develop-
ers Galactic and discover their "roots"
and their views on the Atari market
reviews
21 Imagecopy 3
One of the most popular Atari graphics
utilities gains even more features and
improvements in its latest incarnation
22 Diamond Back 3
Dispel your fears of catastrophic data
loss with HiSoft's vastly improved disk
backup package
30 Kobold
Check out a utility which claims to
significantly speed up and improve file
copying and manipulation on all Ataris
Three pages of information about the
latest releases and developments within
the public domain and shareware world
54 Switched On!
This month, we visit George Dixon
school and find Atari computers playing a
major role in the classroom
72 Subscriptions
Save money and pick a free gift when
you take out a 12-issue subscription to
your favourite ST magazine
74 Advice Service
Got a problem with your computer?
Then this is where you need to turn to
with your pleas for help
78 Aspects
34 TrakCom
The musical talents of Don Maple are
revealed with the aid of Compo's latest
music software
47 Easy Stitch
Tina Hackett is all thimbles and thumbs
as she puts Emerald City's cross stitching
software through its paces
52 T'Phone & Voicemail
We take a look at two new products
from Compo Germany which look set to
replace the answer machine
Seven pages of information -packed articles
on music, comms, business, DTP, utilities,
emulation and the Falcon
READER OFFERS
24 Upgrade Service
Fifteen £££-saving ways
to improve your ST's
memory, power and
ease of use
EDITOR
John Butlers
ARTEDTTC*
Terry Thiefe
TECHNICAL EDITOR
Darren Evans
PRODUCTION HinOR
David Longworth
STAFF WRITERS
JorarrnnModdor.il
Simon Clays
Adam PhilBps
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Tmorlrjclcelt
AD MANAGERS
Lisa UraeevreJ
EmmaBorr
AD PRODUCTION
Wendy Binnersley
MAJKE7ING MANAGER
Lucy Oliver
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Sandra Crtilds
OSCULATION DIRECTOR
David Wren
DISTRIBUTION
COMAG 10895] 444055
SUBSCRIPTIONS
051-3572961
Publisbed by Europress Pubiiccftws Ltd.
Europe House.
ytnaton Park,
Macclesfield SKI04NP
Tsl: 0625 878888 (ol deport™*!
Fax: 0625 850652
CHARMAN Dereic Meakir,
MANAGING DIRECTOR fanBloomfieU
Afemfcer of (he AuSt Bureau of Grajtation
Atvri ST User is an independent publication
ond Atari are not roponsiole for any of tHe
articles in this is sue or for cny of the
opinions expressed.
© 1994 Eurapress Publkcrttons ltd.
No material may be reproduced
in whole or in pert without
written permission.
While every cans is token,
the pu bEsbers cannot be held legally
responsible for any errors in orhdes,
listings or odwrlisemerrts.
Printed and bound by MC Megan*. (CoAfeJ Ud
A swmber of !h« BriSsii Printing Compofiy Ud
:riprion rate: £39.95 (UK), £54.95 [EK], £74.95 (World}
ling quarterly direct debit: £8.49 (UK only}
CoverDisk
Blow
up a close m _ ,
friend in
this brilliant two- ^HJMHH
player game demo
with split-screen display
UTOPOS
Do you want to add a
little panache to your
home videos? Or maybe
create your own computer
video? Then check out
this month's exclusive
demo of Video Supreme,
a brilliant video titling
utility which lets you add
text, graphics and
sampled sound effects to
your home videos
Utopos - A two-player blast-
em-up featuring split screen
display and eight-way scrolling
Start-it!!! - A powerful boot
manager utility with a great
looking interface
Double - Double the screen
height in medium and high res
on your STE
HP Deskjet drivers - Three
Deskjet printer drivers for
Word Writer 2
Atari ST User August 1994 J
s
ystem Q
olutioris
The DeskTopper
NEW. A solid metal case to replace
the plastic top of ST(FM/e) and
Falcon computers. Only £69.95
FreeKeys - separates the keyboard
from the computer £39.95
DeskTopper & FreeKeys £99.95
Please phone for more information.
CD-Rom Systems
Falcon System: Sony CD-300 Drive,
SCSI II Cable, ExtenDOS £259.00
Complete ST(FM/e)System: CD-300
Translator, ExtenDOS £299.00
ExtenDOS (CD-Rom Driver) £29.95
CD Rom Disks
Lohrum Vol 1 (PD/Shareware) £29.95
" Vol 2 (PD/Shareware) £29.95
Gemini (Atari PD/Shareware) £24.95
Clip Master Pro (Clip-Art) £34.95
Midi files and .Mods (Music) £TBA
Falcon Add-ons
Falcon Wins 0Mb £49.95
Falcon Wins 4Mb £179.00
Falcon Wins 14Mb £ Call
BlowUP 030 - Software £15.00
BlowUP 030- Hard 1 £49.95
BlowUP 030 - Hard 2 £69.95
14" Monitors from £99.95
NEW 15" &171DEK Monitors £ Call
Clarity 16 £99.95
Cubase Audio (New V1. 10) In Stock
FDI - Falcon Disital Interface In Stock
FA-8 Falcon Analos In & Out In Stock
Communications
Comms Software
CoNnectv2.4x £29.95
Includes printed manual and resistration
Fax Software (requires Fax Modem)
Straight Fax v2.10 £79.95
Straight Fax upsrade to v2.1 £26.00
NEW- Exchanseable SyQuest Drives
105Mb, 14.5ms Drive, inc. cart £399.00
105Mb Cartridge £59.95
270Mb Drive: Available soon £ TBA
Specials
The Jaguar & Games are now in Stock
T28Mhz Accelerator m £189.95
1.44Mb Floppy Drive Kit ta»s £79.95
The Translator £69.95
HD-Driver Software £19.95
ICD Link II £89.95
ICDProUtils £39.95
ST(fm/e) Tower «**; £189.95
Falcon Tower Kit
£159.95
Falcon 030, 32Mhz, 4Mb, 60Mb Hdd,
M/Tos,S-Gdos, Works £795.00
As above, 120Mb Hdd £895.00
To order and for further information
telephone or write to:
Mail Order Telephone
0753-832212
System Solutions
Windsor Business Centre,
Vansittart Road, Windsor, SL4 1SE
Fax:0753-830344
or come to our London Showroom at:
The Desktop Centre
17-19 Blackwater Street,
London, SE22 8RS
Tel: 081-693 3355 Fax:081-693 6936
All prices include VAT
For small items under £50 please add £3.50 P&P
Large items over £50 add £10 courier charge
Monochrome Monitors
The award winnins SM14 is a perfect
replacement for the Atari SM124/5
monochrome monitors: it exceeds
Atari's original specifications. The
14" high resolution, paperwhite FST
(Flatter, Squarer Tube), gives a per-
fectly centred, crisp, sharp image
without blurring at the edges.
The SM14 comes without, and the
SM14s with, a speaker. The SM14f is
for the Falcon. A Tilt and Swivel
stand comes as standard.
The special version for STfm/Mega
ST installed with Overscan, the
screen enhancer, gives a 40% bisser
display.
All monitors come as a plug-in-and-
So unit, complete with Atari plug,
and no adaptors are necessary.
"Essential Buy, 90%"
ST Review, May 93
SM14/f without audio £129.95
SM14S with audio £149.95
Overscan ST £39.95
Minis -Hard Drive System
The MiniS Hard Drive System comes
with drive capacities ranging from
40Mb up to 1800Mb. This full SCSI
system is hardware compatible with
all Atari computers, Amiga, Mac, PC
etc. They are unrivalled in size, noise,
speed, and style and come with a
thru port for expansion.
It is the only Hard drive awarded an
Essential Buy of 92% - Atari ST Re-
view Christmas '93, and a Gold
Award of 93% - ST Format Feb. '94
-k Quiet fan -k Internal Power Supply 100-240v
* 2 Year Warranty * Small (2.5x6x8.5in)(WxHxD)
•k Dual SCSI port *• Device Number Switch *
• Now with HD-DRIVER FREE
TT/Falcon
ST(FM/e)
40Mb
£199
127Mb
£229
£269
170Mb
£259
£299
270Mb
£339
£379
340Mb
£399
£449
540Mb
£599
£639
1.0Gb AV
10ms
£899
£939
1.7Gb AV 10ms
£1199
£1239
Please acid 110 to ST(FM/e) if the ICD Link II is required.
Heavy Duty professional cases with 60W Power Supply, add £50.
All Prices include VAT
Falcon 030 Systems -32Mhz
The Falcon is fast becoming the pref-
ered choice for 8 track digital re-
cording, with powerful programs
such as Cubase Audio using it to its
full potential. The DSP chip opens up
a whole new world of Sound and
Graphics. System Solutions now
supply 32Mhz Falcon 030 computers
from stock.
PowerUp2 is a brand new 32Mhz
accelerator for the Falcon, available
now. PowerUp2 doubles the CPU
clock speed and does not take up
the internal expansion slot.
We supply systems for Music, Desk
Top Publishing, Image Manipulation,
Animation, Desk Top Video, fax &
modem use etc. Please phone for
your personal quotation of a tailor-
made Falcon 030 System.
PowerUp2 kit £59.95
PowerUp2 fitted £99.95
Falcon 030, 4Mb Memory £599.00
with PowerUp2 fitted £659.00
MagiC - Multitasking Operating System
"It's like running an accelerator and
gettins the multitaskins thrown in
for free." ST USER, Feb. 1994
MagiC is a full TOS replacement, a
very fast disk filing system; has
accelerated serial, midi and printing
routines, and is, of course, a true
pre-emptive multitaskins system.
MagiC Desk, a replacement Desktop
and a powerful command shell have
been included. MagiC runs on all ST,
Mesa and TT computers with 512Kb,
but 2Mb is recommended for a
NVDI
NVDI replaces the Atari display
routines. Screen updates with NVDI
are 3-10 times faster. Works with all
TOS versions on all Atari ST, MesaST,
TT and Falcon 030 computers.
Cubase and Notator compatible.
'Compatibility is remarkable and we
have yet to find a prosram that is not
compatible with NVDI'.
ST Review Issue 16, Ausust 1993.
NVDI version 2.5 £49.95
NVDI & Kobold £89.95
useful workins system. The Falcon
version is expected later this year.
"If you want a multi-tasking system
that works simply and realiably, then
MagiC is for you." ST Review,June 1994.
Magic (Intro price) "«* £59.95
Magic and NVDI "*« £89.95
Magic and Kobold «»■* £99.95
NB: Excellent with Calamus SL. Compatible with
Notator Logic, but not with Notator SL and not
yet compatible with Cubase.
Kobold
Kobold is a high speed file manager.
It's unique handling of the Atari file
system gives unrivalled speed when
copying, moving and deleting files.
Copies 1000 files, (10Mb) in 45sec,
(GEMDOS 5:35min) Use Kobold for
Backups, Formatting Floppies, Move/
Copying, Updates, Timed Jobs, etc.. It
also includes a script learn function
to automate repetative functions.
Can be run as an .ACCor.PRG
Kobold 2.5 (Intro Price) «*« £49.95
Repairs and Upgrades
All repairs are carried out by qualified personnel. If you would like a quote,
please ask for an estimate. Need it back in a hurry? Then ask for our profes-
sional next-day service. Call us to discuss your upgrade requirements. We fit all
quality upgrade products available. We can collect and deliver by courier.
Atari Workshop is
the only UK company
with TWO full-time
Atari Service centres.
Windsor Service Centre:
off Duke Street, Windsor, SL4 1SE.
Tel:0753-818816
London Service Centre:
17-19 Blackwater Street, East Dulwich,
SE22 8RS. Tel:081-6931919
GSEinHl
ESSENTIAL BUY
EH33EB
ESSENTIAL BUY
GOLD AWARD
ST Format
Call the professionals
now for your personal
quote.
ATA?i
WORK SHOP
Jaguar is a
sell out
The first shipments of Jaguar consoles have sold
out in most places and have been met with a
chorus of approval from independent retailers
across the country, according to Atari. The
indies who have managed to stock the 64-bit
console have all given it full marks for sales
potential.
"I have sold more Jaguars in three days than
any other format in the rest of 1994 put
together," said Steve Palmer from Computer
Run in Abingdon. "Atari is an unusual
saviour, but they have produced a product that
the consumer wants, at a price he is
prepared to pay and our industry badly needs
that."
At SDL, the distributors of the machine,
group marketing controller John Arundel
said: "We cannot wait to get our hands on
more Jaguars. Response to our first batch has
been overwhelming and it looks like Atari's
Jaguar will be a roaring success!"
While Atari claim that around 70,000 units
have been sold in the States, the Jaguar's fate in
Britain is still a subject of much debate due
mainly to the lack of substantial stock.
by Adam Phillips
Darryl Still: "Jaguar is an oppor-
tunity nobody should miss."
DEXtrous Desktop
for Falcon
Released in August, the DEXtrous Cyber-lconic File Manager is a multitasking operating
system for the Falcon. Soon to join the competitive ranks of Geneva, Neodesk and Mag!x, the
package will feature its own custom operating system called PACE.
Features include a drag and drop, advanced VDI/window system that allows DEXtrous to be
called up from within any program. One of the product's innovative facilities is the cyberspace
browser - the user will be able to view a large recursive cyberspace, where files are visualised
"inside" directories. It is claimed the user will, quite literally, "move" into directories and look
round.
Also included is an Iconic Organiser which can organise files into "logical" directories similar
to the Program Groups found in the Windows Program Manager. It is also possible to gener-
ate icons from any graphics file to produce
thumbnails.
For aesthetic enthusiasts, DEXtrous has a
configurable desktop that can be adjusted and
tailored to individual tastes.
Expected price for the package at the time of
going to press is £39.95 and it will be available
from Black Scorpion Software (021-414 1630).
DEXtrous Desktop: offers
a custom operating
system and multitasking
for the Falcon
Private
prosecution
for piracy
The Crime Unit recently created by ELSPA
to combat software theft, has had its first
success with a private prosecution brought
against pirateer, Philip Richards. A private
investigator working for the association
discovered that Richards was illegally copy-
ing and selling games software.
The prosecution was brought following a
visit by the investigator to Richard's home in
December 1993. There, Philip copied and
sold the ELSPA man four programs for the
Amiga 1200. Police later raided the house
and seized both computer equipment and
over 2,000 computer disks.
The magistrates at Kettering Magistrates
Court in Northumberland found Richards
guilty of breaching section 107 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1 988. He
was fined £75 for each of the four copied
programs he attempted to sell, and was
charged £250 costs.
Also successful were three raids carried
out netting pirated CD software worth £10
million.
John Loader, chief investigator for the
Crime Unit, said: " We warned that new
low cost CD-R copying equipment could
potentially lead to huge losses for UK soft-
ware producers and could lead to the distri-
bution of high quality pornographic material
on CD. The retrieval of £ 1 0m worth of soft-
ware on just 500 CDs perfectly illustrates
the enormous threat posed to the commer-
cial software industry..."
Members of the public with information
on illegal software should contact ELSPA on
0386 833810. All calls will be treated in
confidence.
er: "Yet again, in
raids we have referred material
anti-pornography departments."
Atari ST User Auguat 1 994
Paperback help
Owners of Complete Works and Fine Words
experiencing difficulties with some of the
features available can seek solace with Kuma
Books' latest paperback release.
Costing £16.95, Complete Works and Fine
Words Explained looks at the programs as
complete packages, and explains all the facili-
ties in easy to understand English without the
need for computer jargon.
Kuma Books can be reached on 0734
844335.
* * *
Jaguar secrets
Atari are keeping their usual tight lips sealed
on news of the latest developments for the
Jaguar. Darryl Still, marketing manager of
Atari UK, has promised dramatic revelations
at the Chicago CES show in June.
Atari ST User will report on these as soon
as the information is made available.
• • •
Lynx game bundle
The price of the Atari Lynx has been cut to
£49.99 and will come with one free title. The
game has yet to be specified by Atari.
• • •
Techy education
The European Technology in Learning Show
is appearing for the first time at the NEC and
is targeted at both business and educational
sectors.
Running from the 1 6- 1 8th November, the
exhibition will cover a variety of subjects from
the information superhighway to virtual real-
ity classrooms.
For further details, call Julie Smith on 0254
676025.
• * *
Make a date
The next issue of Atari ST User is available
from all good newsagents on July I Ith
Diary Dates
September 20-25, 1994
Live '94
Venue: Earls Court
Organiser: News International
(071-782 6893)
Players in the electronic entertainment
industry have pledged their support for this
large consumer electronics show.
October 6-9, 1 994
BBC Big Bash
Venue: NEC, Birmingham
Organiser: Haymarket Exhibitions
The Future World area of this big show
will contain the latest computer games and
virtual reality.
Success for SyQuest
SyQuest Technology, suppliers of removable Winchester disk cartridges and associated drives,
have settled their litigations with Iomega Corporation and Nomai S.A.
Under a definitive settlement agreement, SyQuest will receive royalty payments from the two
companies in exchange for a licence of certain intellectual property rights relating to SyQuest
44Mb and 88 Mb 5.25" cartridges.
Also according to SyQuest, hardware produced by Iomega and Nomai is being passed off by
certain resellers as genuine SyQuest cartridges. In some cases, Iomega and Nomai resellers have
advertised what appear to be genuine SyQuest cartridges, sometimes with their logo or pictures of
SyQuest cartridge packing. However, when customers examine the cartridges sold, they turn out
to be Iomega and Nomai cartridges instead.
To assist customers who have experienced
damage to their SyQuest SQ555 and SQ5 I 10
drives caused by the Iomega or Nomai cartridges,
the company will honour its warranties on the
drives if Iomega and Nomai pay for the cost of the
repairs.
As a final sting in the tail, SyQuest will also sell its
drives and cartridges to the two companies, who will
be able, in turn, to offer dissatisfied customers
genuine SyQuest products as replacements.
"We're pleased to settle these litigations on such
a favourable basis," said David Everett, SyQuest's
executive vice president of sales and marketing. "
Iomega and Nomai have clearly recognised the
superiority of SyQuest's Winchester technology."
"Our consistent legal position has been that
manufacture and sale of cartridges by Iomega and
Nomai illegally infringed SyQuest's intellectual
property rights. Our position has now been
vindicated". SyQuest: Litigation finally resolved
CompuServe services
and membership grows
According to details released by the American-
based online service, CompuServe, membership
in Britain is growing at a rate of more than
1,000 per week and is currently in excess of
48,000.
"More and more people are finding out what
we early online members know - online
services are key resources," said Cheryl
Currid, who monitors the online services
market for Currid & Company. " It doesn't
surprise me to see the masses discover the
benefits of online services. I just wonder why it
took them so long."
After the announcement of further services
specifically aimed at the UK market, the PA
News wire is now available to the user provid-
ing up-to-the-minute news in several categories
including general, financial, sports, parliamen-
tary, law and royal reports.
At election time PA Online will include a
special category for results of local and national
contests.
Clive Marshall, Sales Director of PA News
said: "Every national newspaper and broad-
caster uses the PA service of news and sports
information. Now CompuServe users can
access that service directly and read stories
that broke just a few seconds ago..."
The global network has also introduced the
Video Game Publishers Forum and Video
Games Forum. Through these new services,
CompuServe members can see previews of
new games for the Atari Jaguar, talk strategy
and receive hints, tips and shortcuts on their
favourite titles.
The Video Games Publishers Forum allows
you to interact with publishers such as
Accolade, Spectrum Holobyte, Konami and
Data East. Customer support representatives
and game designers will be on line to provide
news, product announcements, game codes,
screen samples, sound files and more.
The Video Games Forum is an online special
interest group of players using the Jaguar as
well as other consoles. Here the gamesters can
discuss the merits of various hardware and
exchange reviews, commentary and playing tips
with their fellow enthusiasts.
"There's a lot of excitement in the gaming
world about inter-console connectivity," said
CompuServe Product Marketing Associate Jim
Pascua. "By participating in our forums, players
can get the latest news on this and other
subjects, as well as make the most of the
gaming technology they already have."
For further details, call CompuServe on
0800 289378.
Mouse mat
novelties
Mat is the name of The Data Business' new
range of novelty mouse mats. They are releas-
ing 12 for the discerning buyer that depict "a
cute pig, a lovely frog, a trompe-l'oeil split
coffee cup and a sweet little owl" among
others.
They also have "his" and "hers" mouse mats,
to avoid being labelled sexist, one called
"Chesterfield" showing a male torso and the
other "Boobs".
Each costs £6.99 and is available from The
Data Business on 0865 842224.
Nl Atari ST User Auguat 1 994
I
SENSIBLE SOCCER CHAOS STRIKES BACK S.O. MONKEY ISLAND
LEMMINGS 2 CHAMP MANAGER 93/4
13.99
3.99
9.99
7.99
9.99
ISHAR 2
7.99
IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE
1 1 MEG = requires at kail I meg HAM
I D/S - requires double sided disk drive I
I. = NEW Item
~~ATArTsT~GAMES~~
A320 AIRBUS (USA ) D/S (1 MEG) 23.49
ADDAMS FAMILY (1 MEG) 8.99
AiR BUCKS D/S (1 MEG) 20.49
ANOTHER WORLD 11.49
ARCHER MACLEAN'S POOL D/S 11.49
B17 FLYING FORTRESS D ; S (1 MEG) ... 24.49
BATTLE OF BRITAIN D/S 12.49
CADAVER 11.49
CAMPAIGN D/S (1 MEG) 24.49
CANNON FODDER D/S 21.99
CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER 93/94
D/S (1 MEG) 9.99
CHAM = :C\S- = ■■'-■. -.-3 = = 93 5U
UPDATE DISK (1 MEG) 6.99
CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER 93/94
END C-SE-SC "-~- ~:5K OS- ... :3.i3
CHAMPIONSHF MANAGER CC .LECTION
(93W. UPDATE DISK) D/S (1 MEG) ...21.49
CHAOS ENGINE D/S (1 MEG) 15.49
CHAOS STRIKES BACK 3.99
CIVILISATION D/S (1 MEG) 24.49
CORRUPTION (M/SCROLLS) 7.49
CRUISE FOR A CORPSE (1 MEG) 11.49
CRYSTAL KINGDOM DIZZY 14.99
DOGFIGHT (1 MEG) 24.49
DREAMLANDS
(TRANSARCTICA. STORM MASTER.
ISHAR) (1 MEG) 20.49
DUNGEON MASTER & CHAOS
STRIKES BACK 20.49
DYNA BLASTERS D/S 21 .99
ELITE 2 (FRONTIER) D/S (1 MEG) 20.99
EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS (STE) 14.99
F1 (DOMARK) D/S 19.99
F15 STRIKE EAGLE 2 D/S (1 MEG) 9.99
F16 FALCON + DATA DISK'S 15.99
F19 STEALTH FIGHTER D/S (1 MEG) ... 12.49
FACE OFF fCE HOCKEY 8.99
FANTASTIC WORLDS
(REALMS, PIRATES. MEGA LO
MANIA. POPULOUS,
WONDERLAND) D/S (1 MEG) 24.49
FINAL COMMAND 2.99
FIRST SAMURAI + MEGA LO
MANIA D/S (1 MEG) 10.99
FLAMES OF FREECO'.' OS (1 MEG) ... 12.49
FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX D/S (1 MEG) 13.99
FUTURE WARS D/S 8.49
SENESW (1 MEG) 21.99
GHOULS 'N' GHOSTS 7.99
GOAL (1 MEG) 14.99
GOBLIIINS 2 D/S 19.49
GRAHAM GOOCH WORLD
CLASS CRICKET D/S 20.99
GRAHAM TAYLOR'S SOCCER
MANAGER C/S (1 MEG) 8.99
HARLEQUIN 8.99
HEIMOALL (1 MEG) 14.49
IK+ 6.99
IMMORTAL D/S {1 MEG| 10.49
INDIANA JONES ACTION 4.99
INDIANA JONES ADVENTURE D/S 11.49
ISHAR 2 - LEGIONS OF CHAOS D/S (1 MEG)7.99
ISHAR 3 D/S (1 MEG)- 21.49
JIMMY WHITES SNOOKER D/S 11.49
JINXTER (M/SCROLLS) 4.49
KICK OFF 2 D/S 9.49
KINGMAKER D.'S 24.99
KINGSQUEST2 10.49
KINGS QUEST 3 • 10.49
KINGS QUEST 4 D/S- 12.49
KNIGHTS OF THE SKY (1 MEG) 12.49
LASER SQUAD 8.99
LEISURE SUIT LARRY 2(1 MEG) 10.49
LEISURE SUIT LARRY 3 • 1 1.49
LEMMINGS 12.49
LEMMINGS 2 D/S (1 MEG) 7.99
LORDS OF CHAOS 8.99
LOTUS TURBO CHALLENGE 2 7.99
LURE OF THE TEMPTRESS D/S H MEG) 11 .49
Ml TANK PLATOON D/S 11.49
MANIAC MANSION D/S 10.49
M!G 29 D/S (1 MEG) 10.49
NIGEL MANSELUS WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIP D/S 18.49
ONE STEP BEYOND D/S 12.99
OPERATION STEALTH D/S 11.49
PANG 6.99
PARASOL STARS D/S 8.99
PATRICIAN D/S (1 MEG) 20.49
PICK W PILE 2.99
PIRATES D/S 10.49
PLAYERMANAGER 11.99
POLICE QUEST 1 12.49
POPULOUS & PROMISED
LANDS D/S (1 MEG) 10.49
POWER UP
(CHASE H.Q, TURRICAN. X-OUT.
ALTERED BEAST, RAINBOW
ISLANDS) D/S 14.99
POWERDRIFT 3.49
POWERMONGER - WW1 DATA DISK D/S 1 1 .49
PREMIER MANAGER D/S 11.99
PRINCE OF PERSIA D/S (1 MEG) 6.99
PRO TENNIS TOUR 2 D/S 10.99
PUSH-OVER D/S 8.99
RAINBOW COLLECTION
(BUBBLE BOBBLE, RAINBOW ISLANDS.
NEW ZEALAND STORY) D/S
REALMS 10.
RICK DANGEROUS D/S 7.
ROBINSONS REQUIEM (1 MEG) 21,
ROBOCOP 2 6.
ROBOCOP 3 D/S (1 MEG) 9.
ROCKET RANGER 2.
RORKE'S DRIFT D/S 6.
SABRE TEAM D/S (1 MEG) 10.
SCRABBLE 17,
SCRABBLE (US GOLD) 20.
SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND D/S (1 MEG) 9,
SENSIBLE SOCCER ('92/93 SEASON) O/S 13,
SENSIBLE SOCCER - INTERNATIONAL
EDITION D/S (1 MEG)» 15,
SHADOW OF THE BEAST 2 7.
SHADOWGATE 3.
SHADOWORLDS D/S (1 MEG) 8.
SILENT SERVICE 2 D/S (1 MEG) 13,
SLEEPWALKER [STE) 8.
SPACE QUEST 1 12,
SPECIAL FORCES D/S (1 MEG) 10.
SPEEDBALL 2 8.
STREETFIGHTER 2 D/S (1 MEG) 11.
STUNT CAR RACER 6
SUPER CARS 2 9
SUPREMACY D/S (1 MEG) 10,
TACTICAL MANAGER D/S (1 MEG) • ...21.
WIZ-KID D/S 10
WWF WRESTLING D/S 8.
ZCOL D/S " 9.99
TROJAN LIGHT PHAZER GAMES
TROJAN - CYBER ASSAULT 7.99
TROJAN - FIRESTAR 4.99
TROJAN - THE ENFORCER 7.99
ATARI ST EDUCATIONAL
FUN SCHOOL 4 (5-7 YRS) 16.49
MICRO GERMAN
(BEGINNER TO GCSE AND BUSINESS
LEVEL. CONFORMS TO NATIONAL
CURRICULUM) 18.99
NODDY'S PLAYTIME
SUPERB NODDY THEMED EDUCATIONAL
ADVENTURE. SUITS AGES 3+ 17.49
STREETFtQHTSKZ-CHWWPICWSHlP 36^8
STWDB? „ „„„. m UM
«- — — «- — 3SJ9
2O0L „ w „^«, «.«,„„. 32^9
SUPER NES GAMES
... 41.89
.2ase
BOOKS
CIVILISATION GUIDE BOOK
BY SID MEIERS 18.49
CORISH COMPUTE?: GAMES GUIDE
(HINTS, TIPS AND POKES FOR
OVER 500 COMPUTER GAMES) 12.99
DUNGEON MASTER HINT BOOK 3.99
SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND HINT BOOK ...8.99
MEGADRIVE GAMES
IKK
ADOAMS FAMLY
MXMMS FAMLY 2 - njQSLETS
SCAVBMEHWJKT
AUnVS PREDATOR* .
SJO&-
BAnaEYSHUrUPAND.HU.
BATMAN HETUHN8 ... -
BATTLETOADS M BATTLEMAMACS
CHA06 E NSUE - _
CLAYFHHTERS
CYBEHHATOB
DRACULA
DRAGON
_4M#
...34.M
... 24»
SONY KVM1400 14" FST COLOUR
TV/MONITOR WITH REMOTE CONTROL.
60 CHANNEL TUNING, REAR SCART INPUT,
HEADPHONE SOCKET. TWO POSITION TILT,
BLACK TRINITRON SCREEN & LOOP AERIAL.
FREE SCART LEAD
(STATE AMIGA, ST, M/DRIVE SNES OR CD32).
SCART INPUT GIVES PIXEL PERFECT PICTURE
SONY TV (GREY AS SHOWN) 194.99
SONY TV (WHITE) 194.99
SONY TV + FASTEXT 244.99
PRINTERS
CITIZEN ABC PRINTER WITH COLOUR KIT
24 PIN, 80 COLUMN, 192CPa>64NlQ, 5LO/1
DRAFT FONTS. 2 YEAR WARRANTY,
FREE PRINTER LEAD. EASYTOUSE 159.99
CANON BJ10-SX BUBBLE JET PRINTER.
64 NOZZLE, 80 COLUMN, 1 10LQ CPS 2LOj'3 DRAFT
FONTS. 1 YEAR WARRANTY. FREE PRINTER LEAD.
A SMALL PORTABLE PRINTER. VERY QUIET
YET GIVING OUTSTANDING PRINT QUALITY.. .185.99
CmZEN SWIFT 200C PRINTER WITH COLOUR KIT
24 PIN, 80 COLUMN, 216CPS/72LQ 6 LQ/1 DRAFT
FONT. AUTO SET FACILITY. INPUT DATA BUFFER,
AUTO PAPER LOADING. ENVELOPE PRINTING,
2 YEAR WARRANTY. FREE PRINTER LEAD. ...189.99
CITIZEN SWIFT 240C PRINTER WITH COLOUR KIT
24 PIN, 80 COLUMN, 240CPS/80LQ. 9LQ/1 DRAFT
FONT. 2 YEAR WARRANTY, FREE PRINTER LEAD.
ADVANCED VERSION OF 24E WITH AUTOSET
FEATURE AND LCD CONTROL PANEL 219.99
PRINTER LEAD (PARALLEL) 1 .5 METRES 7.99
PRINTER LEAD (PARALLEL) 5 METRES 10.99
DUST COVER FOR 80 COLUMN PRINTER
(CLEAR PVC) 4.99
PRINTER STAND FOR ANY PRINTER 7.99
GOOD RANGE OF RIBBONS AND INK CARTRIDGES IN STOCK
PHONE 0279 600204 FOR OUR FREE 1 6-PAGE CATALOGUE
JOIN now from just £4.00
READ Special Reserve Magazine
48 Page colour club magazine sent bi-monthly to members
only. The latest Reviews. Charts & Release Schedule
(H00SE from our Huge Selection
Disks. CD's, Cartridges, Utilities. Education, Home Office.
New Technology and Hardware. 16 Page colour catalogue.
BUY at Best Possible Prices
Just one purchase from Special Reserve will normally save
you the cost of joining. Top discounts on all products.
SAVE with our Special Deals
Always hundreds of Special Reserve Offers. Top games at
prices you wont believe and hardware at amazing reductions.
SAVE MORE with our XS Coupons
Money-off coupons worth over £180 a year off top games.
You'll find them on the back page of each club magazine.
AND ENTER our FREE competitions
Six reasons why over 200,000 people
have joined Special Reserve.
The biggest games dub in the World!
We only supply members but you can order as
you join. Just send in the form below or phone.
There's no obligation to buy.
OPEN to 8pm DAILY or Fax 0279 726842
FREE 16-PAGE COLOUR CATALOGUE - JUST ASK
OPENTOam TIL 8^17 DAYS
CHELMSFORD
43 Broomfield Rd
SAWBRIDGEWORTH
The Maltings
CD32 SPECTACULAR
VOYAGE
WITH MICROCOSM AND
CHAOS ENGINE PLUS
ADDITIONAL WING COMM.,
OSCAR, DIGGERS &
DANGEROUS STREETS
WHILE STOCKS LAST ...230.00
ATARI JAGUAR
64-BIT CONSOLE
WITH JOYPAD AND
CYBERMORPH GAME
AVAILABLE NOW
UK VERSION 229.99
6 MONTHS ONE YEAR
MEMBERSHIP MEMBERSHIP
UK MEMBERS 4.00 7.00
OVERSEAS EC MEMBERS 6.00 9.00
OVERSEAS W0RID MEMBERS 7.00 11.00
.V£C:.-- 5_"_Y MEMBERSBUT «XI DAN ORDER -.S v OU JOIN.
I All press include VAT and carriage to UK mainland. See base of order
I lorm lor overseas surcharges Hardware orders so UK maintend only.
I (PLEASE PRINT IN BLOCK CAPITALS) OATH ffi
□
MICE
ALFA MEGAMOUSE 2
FOR AMIGA OR ST
11.99
EKLIPSE MOUSE
FOR AMIGA OR ST. 290 DPI
RESOLUTION AND LONG CORD
9.99
MOUSE MAT
WITH SPONGE BACKING
(shown - colours may vary)
4.99
MOUSE MAT (JUNGLE SCENE)
WITH SPONGE BACK AND
COLOUR PRINT (not shown) 6.99
EXTENDS
DISKS & ACCESSORIES
PACK OF 1 DYSAN DOUBLE DENSITY 3.5"
DISKS + CASE. WITH LABELS AND
FREE PLASTIC FLIP TOP DISK BOX 5.99
PACK OF 10 TDK MF-2DD 3.5" DISKS + LABELS ...7.99
PACK OF 50 DYSAN DSDD 3.5 - DISKS * LABELS
PACK OF 50 VERBATIM HIGH DENSITY
3.5" DISKS WITH LABELS 25.99
3.5" DISK HEAD CLEANER 4.49
DISK BOX 3.5" PLASTIC FLIP TOP (10) 2.49
DISK BOX 3.5" (120) LOCKABLE. DIVIDERS ...9.99
MEDIA LIFE DISK FILE
p. DRAWER (100 CAPACITY).
_^J STACKABLE DESIGN ...13.99
*^P MEDIA LIFE DISK FILE
■ DRAWER (200 CAPACITY).
"""*— * ' STACKABLE DESIGN ...15.99
DELUXE DISK BOX 3.5' (80).
LOCKABLE. DIVIDERS
9.99
EXTERNAL 3.5" DISK DRIVE
FOR ANY ATARI ST WITH
SONY/CITIZEN DRIVE
MECHANISM. 800K
FORMATTED CAPACITY.
QUIET, HIGH QUALITY.
SLIM LINE DESIGN.
COLOUR MATCHED METAL
CASE AND LONG REACH
CONNECTION CABLE.
PORT EXTENSION ADAPTOR (TWO)
MOUSE AND JOYSTICK PORTS BY 21 CM
MEDIA LIFE A4 COPY HOLDER. FREE STANDING.
EASY SELF ASSEMBLY. HOLDS A4 PAGE FOR
COPY TYPING INTO WORD PROCESSOR,
DATABASE. SPREADSHEET ETC (NEW) 6.99
MEDIA UFE CD FILE DRAWER (30 CAPACITY).
STACKABLE DESIGN. EASY SELF ASSEMBLY ...15.99
ANTI-SURGE 4 WAY
MULTIPLUG EXTENSION
, FOR ANY ELECTRICAL
I DEVICE. PROTECTS
AGAINST ELECTRICAL
_J SURGES 24.99
SCART LEAD - ATARI ST TO SONY TV 9.99
SCART LEAD - ATARI STTO PHILIPS TV 9.99
RF SWITCH - AMIGA. ST OR CONSOLE. SWITCH
BETWEEN TV AERIAL AND COMPUTER 3.99
QUICKSHOT 149 INTRUDER 1
JOYSTICK FOR AMIGA/ST. OMNI
DIRECTIONAL, DUAL SPEED.TWO
FIRE BUTTONS WITH AUTOFIRE
12.99
S QUICKSHOT
R 137F PYTHON
I JOYSTICK FOR
: AMIGA/ST. AUTOFIRE
SAITEK
MEGAGRIP 2 JOYSTICK
FOR AMIGA/ST.
AUTOFIRE
11.49
SCORPION PLUS
JOYSTICK FOR AMIGA/ST.
ARCADE STYLE WITH
TURBO FIRE.
10.99
SLIKSTIK JOYSTICK
FOR AMIGA/ST
5.99
SUPER PRO ZIP
STICK JOYSTICK
FOR AMIGA/ST.
MICROSWITCHED
WITH AUTOFIRE
11.99
SWIFT TP200
JOYPAD FOR
AMIGA/ST.
TURBO FIRE AND
AUTOFIRE
^rT
JOYSTICK EXTENDER
CABLE FOR AMIGA OR ST (3 METRES) 6.99
PORT EXTENSION ADAPTOR FOR AMIGA OR ST
(PACK OF TV/O). EXTENDS JOYSTICK
AND MOUSE PORTS BY 21CMS 6.99
ROBOSHIFT INTERFACE FOR AMIGA OR ST
(PLUGS MOUSE & JOYSTICK INTO ONE PORT) ■ -13.99
FOUR PLAYER JOYSTICK ADAPTOR
FOR AMIGA OR ST 7.99
j Enter membership number or
MEMBERSHIP FEE f ANNUAL UK 7.00)
l item
[PRICES INCLUDE UK POSTAGES. VAT [^
! Cheque/P.OJAccess/Masterrard/Switch/Vtsa (Switch Issue No_
Card expiry_
_Signature_
I Cheques payable to:
I SPECIAL RESERVE
'P.O. BOX 847, HARLOW, CM21 9PH
Overseas Orders Surcharge
(EC or World)
I Software orders please add £2.00 per item.
Non-software items please add 25%.
I Hardware items supplied to UK mainland only.
j Overseas orders must be paid by credit card.
Order/Confirmation,' Receipt sen! for every order.
We only supply official UK products.
Official suppliers of all leading brands.
We sell games and peripherals ail at amazing
prices for Megadrive, Mega CO, Master System,
Game Gear, Super NES, Gameboy, NES, Lynx,
Amiga, Atari ST, PC, CD ROM, CDi, CD32 & Apple Mac.
Inevitably some games listed may not yet be available.
Please s'lcre sa as :- 02~9 cXSvM ;c c'r.~h<. ava'sfc -'y ce'o r e lvcs' ~2.
V.'e 'e=S"."= :~e ■ c": ;:■ I'a'ca c~ces s'z o : fsr= ■.'.--:.: :■■■:■ -:■:■•' cave.
PRICES CORRECT AT TJMEOF GOING TO PRESS. 21 6.94. E .& O.E.
Inter-Mediates Ltd. 2 South Block. The Maltings.
Sawbridgeworth. Herts. CM21 9PG.
Datdl.
yjjjp-u
j
33 Ormskirk Rd,
Preston, Lanes,
PR1 2QP
Ladbroke Computing
International are one of
the longest established home computer
dealers in the U.K. We have developed an
extensive customer service policy which
involves testing of all hardware prior to
despatch to ensure that goods arrive in
working order, offering free advice and
support over the phone and keeping
customers informed. Although our prices
are not always the cheapest we do
endeavour to offer consistently good
sen/ice and backup.
All prices are correct at copy date 13/6/94
(while stocks last), and are subject to
change without prior notice. All prices
include VAT but exclude delfvery.
How to Pay
You can order by mail Cheques/Postal
Orders made payable to Ladbroke
Computing. Or give your credit card details
over the phone.
Delivery
Postal delivery is available on small items
under £40 (Normally £3, phone for details).
Add £7 for courier delivery. Next working
day delivery on mainland UK subject to
stock (£20 for Saturday delivery).
Open Mon-Sat 9.30am to 5.00pm.
Ladbroke Computing Ltd trading as
Ladbroke Computing International.
Fax: (0772) 561071
Teh 9.00am-5.30pm (5 Lines)
m
<n
mm
•jum
StarSJ144 £369.99
The Star SJ144 is a Colour/Mono
thermal wax transfer printer which
gives glossy colour output on
normal paper.
• 360 dpi resolution
• Emulates Epson LQ 860, IBM
Proprinter & NEC graphics
Star
Star LC1 00 Colour £11 9.99
Star LC24/30 Colour £209.99
StarJet SJ48 Bu bblejet £21
SJ48 Ink Cartridge £19
Citizen
Citizen ABC 24pin Colour £179.99
Citizen Swift 240 Colour £260
Hewlett Packard
HP Deskjet 310 £239
HP Deskjet 520 £279.99
HP Deskjet portable £199
HP Deskjet 550 Colour £429.99
Hp DJ500 Colour ink cart £26
Lasers
Ricoh LP1200 £599
Panasonic KX-P4400 Laser£499.99
Seikosha OP104 £479.99
New Star Laser (phone
for details) £459.99
Add £3 for cable. Add £7
for delivery
\5?
* very quiet, no fan necessary
• Dual SCSI port
* Internal Power Supply
* Device Number Selector
* 2Mb PD software free
* Free HD Turbokit
The Data Pulse Plus range of
drives features a full metal case with
integral PSU ideal as a monitor stand.
All Data Pulse Plus Drives now
come configured with industry
standard 50 way SCSI Centronics
sockets which allows connection of
the ICD LINK (no clock) for use on
the ST or a SCSI II cable for use on
the Falcon etc.
To ensure the highest possible
Dataview Mono ST £1 09.99
Quality Mono monitor with Sound ' Limited Offer
The Dataview Monochrome monitor
comes complete with our custom
designed adaptor. The adaptor
incorporates a small beeper and
also a 2.5mm output for better
sound reproduction. The monitor/
adaptor combination is fully
compatible with all ST high
resolution programmes and includes
a tilt/swivel stand.
Screen Beat Speakers £12.99
Multisync Monitor
Microvitec 1438 £289.99
ST Switch Box £19.99
Falcon VGA adaptor £9.99
The Microvitec 1438 is a multisync
monitor compatible with both the
Atari ST and the Falcon. Utilising
the ST switch box it is possible to
display all three ST resolutions on
the same monitor. Also compatible
with screen blaster for the FALCON.
Dataview .31 SVGA Power
Management £199.99
This high quality SVGA monitor has
power management features.
Includes Falcon adaptor.
Dataview .28 SVGA £239.99
This high quality SVGA colour
monitor comes complete with
Falcon adaptor. The .28 dot pitch
gives the highest quality picture
(Falcon will only display 256 colours
in high resolutions).
ST-SVGA adaptor £19.99
Falcon-Composite £9.99
Falcon Scart £9.99
Falcon-ST Mon adaptor £9.99
SCART STE cable £9.99
SCART STFM cable £9.99
Scart TV
(Requires SCART Lead)
Philips 15PT161A/05 TV £209.99
15" FST SCART input TV with
Fastext, On screen menus, 60
channels, remote control, CVBS
input, headphone socket. While
stocks last.
Emm**"*
2400 Baud Voyager £69.99
2400 baud pocket modem, MNP 2-4
error correction, MNP5 data compression
14400 Baud Pegasus
Fax Modem £159.99
14400 Baud Modem, Auto Dial, Auto
answer, Lifetime limited warranty, MNP
2-4 error correction, MNP 5 data
compression, S/R Class 1 & Class 2
commands, Group 3 S/R fax modem
(compatible with Straight FAX™ )
"With reduced call rates there's never
been a better time to invest in
Communications"
reliability, the drives are tested at
every stage of assembly by skilled
technicians.
All drives are ready to 'Plug in and
Go' when you receive them. When
you first boot up your hard drive you
will find a wealth of Public Domain
Utilities which have been selected by
our support staff.
All Data Pulse Plus Drives include
12 months warranty and free phone
advice and support by genuine Data
Pulse Plus users.
The low power consumption of
these Autoparking Autobooting
mechanisms means that they can
operate well within their safe
operational temperature ranges
without the need for fan cooling. This
coupled with the design of the case
results in probably the quietest Hard
Drive range available for the ST.
Re-Writeable Optical drives offer
staggering density with hard drive
speed. Each 3.5" optical disk stores
• 16MHz 32 bit 68030 Central
Processor, 16MHz Blitter, 32MHz
56001 Digital Signal Processor
• 1.44Mb 3.5" Floppy, up to 14Mb
RAM. Displays 65536 colours from
262144 palette at 768x480
resolution
• 8 Channel 16 bit, high quality. Stereo
sound sampling
FALCON 1 Mb RAM No HD £499
FALCON 4Mb No HD £699
FALCON 4Mb 64Mb HD £799
FALCON 4Mb 127Mb HD £899
FALCON 4Mb 209Mb HD £999
liball
Tra
Economically designed Trak Ball.
320Dpi resolution, 2 microswitched
buttons. The Legend Trak Ball is
very easy to use. Unlike normal Trak
balls the LEGEND is operated with
the thumb freeing the fingers to click
buttons ONLY £29.99
3 . 5 " EX****** 0fiVe
Zydec 3.5" External Floppy drive.
Includes own external power supply.
£59.99
em* *>«"*
High quality 300 dpi mouse with
microswitched buttons ST/AM.
£11.99
m #* ******
Marpet upgrades for the ST are "plug in"
and require no soldering. They are
compatible with most motherboard
layouts and come with full fitting
instructions. These boards accept SIMM
boards and are upgradeable at a later
date. Please check that MMU and Shifter
are "socketed' before ordering.
Unpopulated Marpet Board £24.00
See SIMM prices below
Forget Me Clock II £13.99
512K SIMM'S £7.99
2MB SIMM'S £54.99
4MB SIMM'S £109.99
"Data Pulse is astonishingly fast"-
Andrew Wright, ST User
128Mb with access time of 30ms and
a data transfer rate of 600K per
second.
Data Pulse +1 70Mb £260
D/P +230Mb R/W Optical £890
CD ROM Drive £180
Phone for further details on CD ROM
Please note all prices quoted are
for main drive unit only. Add ICD
LINK for use with ST or SCSI
cable for use with FALCON
ICD LINK 2 £89.99
SCSI Cable (Falcon) £29.99
230Mb Optical disk £39.99
ICD PRO Utilities £39.99
fnjL
1040STE Curriculum
£199.99
2Mb 1040STE
£254.99
4Mb1040STE
£309.99
iisole
Jaguar with Cybermorph £249.99
Phone for games cartridges
$ef vice s
The Only ATARI
Authorised Repair
Centre in the UK
Our Atari trained technicians can
repair STs at competitive rates. We
can arrange for fully insured, courier
pickup and return delivery of your
machine to ensure its safety. We
even have a same day service
which will ensure your machine is
given priority and subject to fault,
completed the same day.
We offer a Quotation service for
£15 for which we will examine your
machine and report back with an
exact price for repair. If you do not
wish to go ahead with the repairs
then just pay the £15. However if
you do go ahead then the charge is
included in the minimum charge.
Please note: The minimum
charge covers labour, any extra
parts are chargeable.
Minimum repair charge £35.25
Same day service £15.00
STFM(E) PSU £34.99
1 Mb internal drive £39.99
TOS 2.06 + Switch STFM £65.00
Courier Pickup £11.00
Courier Return £7.00
alstu m »**« pcml imr*
Midi
240 PPQ Midi Standard file format
compatible. 100 tracks. Phrase
arrangement. Very easy to use.
£9.99
• Check configuration before
ordering
PC Speed STFM or STE (XT) £49.99
AT Speed STFM (8MHz) £139.99
*«t*
Don Maple does his bit for Europ
union, with a report on the big releases
and updates from over there which are
going to do rather well over here '
We're talking mice
Do you remember that Star Trek movie where
the crew return to our century and good old
Scotty speaks to a computer? One of our
contemporaries then quietly points out that he
should use the mouse. "Oh!" says Scotty, picking
up the mouse in his hand and saying into it:
"Computer!?".
Very funny, but if you have a Falcon you can
now actually do that and the computer will know
you're talking to it. The magic mouse is called
"Hello Mouse" and has been modified to contain
a small microphone.
Consequently the mouse has two tails. One is a
normal mouse cable, and the other plugs into the
Falcon's mic port. But this is more than just a gag.
Hello Mouse comes with an accessory
called Tea Time. This is a reminder-type
accessory which will talk to you at previously set
times.
The messages can be recorded either directly
with the mouse or from any other sound source
such as CD or cassette. The recorded messages -
which are ,AVR sound files - can be played back
at a specific date and time or repeatedly on a daily
Ergo!-pro for GFA-Basic
The latest version of this successful GFA-Basic developer environment is out. The program contains a
shell, on-line help, program analyser, optimiser and pre-processor. Fully modular and with batch capa-
bility the new version costs DM 148 (£60).
Also available are GFA-Basic to QuickBasic converter for DM128 (£50), and two sets of useful
routines called Tools I and 2 priced at DM39 (£15) each. Available from COLUMBUS SOFT, Christof
Schardt, Kinzigweg 1 , 64297 Darmstadt, Germany.
Reading writing
The mouse with two
tails - it's no joke
basis. A range of dates can also be set. For exam-
ple, every Monday between July I and August 3 I
at 8am you can have it play back the message
"Wake up, you're on vacation!".
Tea Time together with the hearing mouse
sells for DM199 (about £80) and is available from
Compo on 0487-35 82.
.•*•.
*Eurotalk*
# ST shareware is very popular in
Germany. To make this run even
better, Delta Labs Sofware will from
now on act as a clearing house for
many programs.
Numerous authors have already
entered into an exclusive agreement
with Delta to have their software
distributed in this way. The series of
programs is called "Softline".
Software is delivered with a
printed manual and no additional
registration is necessary. For more
information write to Delta Labs
Software, Rembrandstr. I, 42329
Wuppertal, Germany.
• After a number of smaller success-
ful Atari shows in Germany
(proTOS, FEZ-A-BIT) as well as
many "Falcon dealer parties", moves
are underway to revive the legendary
Dusseldorf show.
Nothing has been confirmed but a
yet unnamed independent group of
organizers are investigating appropri-
ate sites in and around Dusseldorf.
If it ever materializes the show is
expected to be held around the
September/October timeframe.
ST on a PC
The Janus card mentioned in the
ProTOS show report is now shipping.
Janus costs DM898 (£360) and a set of
2.06 ROMs needed for it to operate are
DM87 (£35).
In addition the card also needs RAM
in the guise of 2 SIMMs cards. Janus on
a 486 PC will not only run many ST
programs but it will do so at up to 25
times faster. For more information
write to VHF Computer GmbH,
Daimlerstr. 13, 71 101 Schoenaich,
Germany.
Actually, this month's offering is freeware. OCR, or "optical character
recognition", is a program capable of reading written text. Normally
the document must first be digitized and this image file is then fcM«^
processed by such a program producing ASCII text. C "■■©
Currently in version 1.2, the OCR program needs the A^
documents to be saved as IMG files. There are a number
of settings that affect the recognition including how accu-
rate the program is.
OCR also mantains a library of fonts which can be
loaded and saved at will. For example, a screen grab of a
desktop window would be 100 per cent system font. This
would produce the directory as an ASCII file.
OCR also excels at slanted and even proportional text. The
accuracy is absolutely amazing - far better than many commercial prod-
ucts - and that's what makes this such a wonderful program.
There is an English language resource file and the program
s quite easy to use as all settings are quite self-explanatory.
OCR 1.2 can be found on various online services
such as OCRI2.ZOO or you may try and write to the
author.
Since the program is freeware, if you do write you
^T should at the very least include a disk, an SAE and - if
you're outside Germany - several Internation Reply
Coupons available at your local PO. The OCR author is
at: Alexander Clauss, Stresemannstr. 44, 64297 Darmstadt,
Germany.
Atari ST User August 1 994
Spruce up your videos with Video Supreme, a
great video titling utility. Or you can blow up
a friend in Utopos, a two-player arcade game
with split-screen display
Everything you need to do in Video Supreme
is achieved at the click of a button
Video Supreme
Those of you with a video camera will
no doubt have taken video footage of
your holidays, parties or weddings. However,
once you get back it's usually a case of
transferring your video footage from the
camera's small video tape to a standard
VHS tape.
Using Video Supreme, you can add a more
professional touch to your videos by inserting
text and graphics sequences as well as digitised
sound samples during the transfer.
You don't even need a video camera as you
can also use Video Supreme to create your
own computer video demos. Simply create
your screens using an art package like
Degas Elite or Deluxe Paint, create your own
sound samples or use pre-recorded ones, and
then use Video Supreme to create
a film sequence from the images and sounds
you have provided. Then, simply run your
sequence while recording it to your video
recorder.
COMPLETELY USABLE
The Video Supreme CoverDisk demo is
completely usable. The only restrictions are that
you are limited to ten frames per sequence, the
Print Sequence option is disabled, the on-line
help function for the effects is not implemented
and other ancillary modules and example
sequence files are not included.
The complete Video Supreme package
allows you to have sequences with up to 200
frames. It also comes as a collection of
modules which are accessed from a loader
program.
The demo program on the CoverDisk
is the editor module, which is the heart
of the Video Supreme package, and is where
the creative part of producing a sequence is
done.
Record text, graphics and even
digitised sound sequences to
your home videos with this
exclusive demo
Other modules in the complete package
include the Quick Try Program, which allows
you to record sequences to video tape that use
sound sample files over 30,000 bytes in size,
the Runner Program, which lets you create
executable versions of your sequences for
distribution or inclusion within other software,
the Sequence Preparer, which is a kind of
scripting utility and the Screen Compactor util-
ity, which allows you to reduce the size of
graphic screens so you can create even longer
sequences.
Once you have extracted the Video Supreme
archive file, you will find that the Video
Supreme executable file (VSI.PRG) is in an
AUTO folder. If you have only SI 2k of
memory, do not try running the VSI.PRG file
from the desktop as you may experience lack
of memory problems. If you have I Mb or more
you should have enough memory to run the file
from the desktop. Hard disk users
can install Video Supreme to a partition.
However, ensure that the Video Supreme files
are copied to the root directory and not into a
folder.
Included in the Video Supreme demo is an
example sequence file called VSI_DEMO.
To load this, click on the Load Sequence
button at the top right of Video Supreme's
interface.
Once loaded, you can run the sequence by
clicking on the Play Sequence button. When
you press the Play Sequence button you will
see a blank screen. Video Supreme is waiting
for you to press the space-bar to start. Some
Atari ST User August 1 994
disk
Mii/i'ilnH
By
Configuration
File/s
Disk space
needed to extract |
Video Supreme
Scott King
All STs, low res
X_SUPRME.TOS-
Self extracting archive
650676 bytes
Utopos
Aggression
STEs, 1Mb, low res
xjrropos.Tos-seif
extracting archive
473574 bytes
Double
Lars-Erik Osterund
STEs, med, high res
X_DOUBLE.TOS-Self
extracting archive
8562 bytes
STart-it!!!
Christian Ernst
All STs, med, high res
X_START.TOS -
Self extracting archive
462156 bytes
Word Writer
Deskjet drivers
Anonymous
All STs, med, high res
X_HP_DRV.TOS -
Self extracting archive
5826 bytes
other screens also require you to press a key.
This is to allow you to manually control how
long a screen is displayed while recording
directly to a video.
If you create any of your own screens or
samples they must be stored in appropriate
folders, as Video Supreme expects them to be
there when loading. Screens, strangely enough,
go in the SCREENS folder and samples in the
SAMPLES folder.
Of course you also need to know how to
connect your ST to the video recorder, other-
wise you won't see diddly squat. So, here's
how it's done. For those using a TV
Video Supreme special offer
Are you impressed with Video Supreme? Do you want to save some money
on the full version? Then check out these special packages availabl
— _ to all Atari ST User readers. --
ORDER FORM
Q PACK 1 (save £5)
The complete Video Supreme package which includes a professionally printed manual
and lots of other utilities to make creating sequences a breeze.
Price: £9.95
Q PACK 2 (save £9.95)
The complete Video Supreme package PLUS The Video Supreme Screen Maker, which
makes creating screens for your Video Supreme sequences a breeze.
Price: £19.95
To order, simply tick the box for the pack you require and send your order to: Goodman
International, 16 Conrad Close, Meir Hay Estate, Long ton,,
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire ST3 1SW
I wish to pay by:
—I cheque/postal order payable to Europress Direct —I credit card
Expiry date.
Name
Card No
Address .
Postcode Daytime Phone
Allow 28 days for delivery
Alternatively, you can phone your order through on 0782 335650
_J Please tick this box if you do not wish to receive promotional material from other companies
Using the
CoverDisk
Write-protect your CoverDisk now by sliding the
write-protect tab so you can see through the hole at
the top right corner of the CoverDisk.
In order to fill the disk with as many programs as
possible, ST User employs disk compression tech-
niques when placing large programs on the CoverDisk.
These files are termed "archived files" and cannot
be directly executed from the CoverDisk. Archived
files are identified by their names beginning with X_.
Any files that do not begin with X_ are actually
folders containing files which are not compressed.
These uncompressed files should also be copied to
a blank disk. Following are a series of step-by-step
instructions for using the CoverDisk.
Important: The ST User CoverDisk uses an
extended format of 10 sectors and 81 tracks to
increase storage space. This means you will not be able
to copy the disk using the ST's built-in copying feature.
To make a backup of the CoverDisk, you will need
a copying utility, such as FastCopy 3. Such utilities are
available from all good PD libraries.
Alternatively, you may use a formatting utility, to
format a disk to the same 10 sector, 82 track specifica-
tion as the CoverDisk and simply copy all files to this.
Using archived files
Note: When copying files, the ST refers to disk A and
disk B in its on-screen instructions. Disk A refers to
the disk being copied while disk B refers to the disk
being copied to (usually a pre-formatted blank disk).
1 . Format a disk.
2. Copy the required archived file to the formatted
disk.
3. Run the copied archived file. It will now automati-
cally "extract" to its full size.
4. Once complete, delete the X_ filename as this is no
longer required. The formatted disk should now
contain all the files that were in the archive file.
Normal uncompressed files
1. Format a blank disk
2. Open the required folder and copy all files in the
folder to the formatted disk.
3. You can now immediately run the program/s as is.
Highlighting and dragging files and icons
1. Click once on the item, it should turn black (the
item is now highlighted).
2. If you keep the left mouse button held down on the
item, a dotted outline of the item appears and you may
then
re-position it by moving the mouse to the required
position (effectively dragging the icon) and releasing
the mouse button.
If you are new to the ST and did not understand
some of the terminology in the preceding steps. There
now follow an explanation of some basic techniques
needed.
Formatting a disk
1 . Place the disk to be formatted in the drive.
2. Highlight the drive A icon.
3. Move mouse pointer up to the FILE menu at the top
of the screen and select FORMAT.
4. A box will appear. Click on OK.
5. Another box will appear. Ensure DOUBLE SIDED is
selected then click on OK. The disk is now being
formatted.
Copying files to another disk
1. Select the file to be copied by highlighting it and
dragging it to the disk B icon.
2. A box entitled COPY FILE(s) appears. Click on OK
and follow instructions on the screen exchanging disks
as requested.
Atari ST User August 1 994
with their ST, simply take the aerial lead
from your ST and plug it into the "RF In"
socket of your video. Then, take the aerial lead
from the "RF Out" socket of your video to
the TV.
Switch your TV to the video channel and
make sure the ST, TV and video are turned on.
Choose a spare channel on your video and
tune the video until you see the picture from
your ST.
If the picture is good enough you can simply
start recording. However, it may be that the
picture is less than clear. This is due to the
Video and your computer both operating on
channel number 36, thereby conflicting with
each other.
To get around this, look at the
back of the video recorder where you should
find a small screw-type adjuster,
usually marked as "Ch Adj". Using a screw-
driver, turn this screw very slightly in either
direction.
Now try re-tuning your video. If you still get
Once you have a picture loaded into the editor
...you can then fade it in or out of view using a
variety of special effects, such as this one (called X
strangely enough)
a crappy picture, turn the screw a little more
and try again. Some trial and error is needed
here but it should work.
For maximum picture quality though, it's
best to have a lead coming directly from your
ST's monitor socket, which is a 13-pin DIN-
type affair.
The ideal situation is if your video
has a Scart socket at the back. If so, you simply
need to buy an ST-to-Scart lead, available
from most good computer stores, and connect
your ST via this. This gives the best picture
quality of all and there's no fiddly tuning
involved.
Alternatively, you can make a lead using a
13-pin DIN and Phono plug. The Phono plug
then connects to the video recorder's "Video
In" socket.
Pin 2 of the 1 3-pin DIN plug connects to the
centre pin of the Phono. Then connect pin 13
to the outer shielding of the Phono.
Unfortunately, you won't get any sound using
this method.
Utepes
Utopos is a two-player blast-'em-up demo in
which you take control of a spaceship to seek
out and destroy your opponent. The game is
for STE owners only and requires 1Mb.
Controlling your ship is not as simple as it
sounds as you have to contend with gravity,
using your thrusters to skilfully avoid obstacles,
your opponent and his bullets.
The screen display is divided in two showing
the area surrounding your ship and your oppo-
nents. You each start from your own base and
must out-manoeuvre each other, trying to get
in a good firing position.
While at your base, pulling back on the
joystick takes you to an "outfitting" screen
where you can change your weapons, re-arm
and re-fuel.
Of course, while you're doing this, your
opponent may well be moving in for a kill, so
watch your tail.
Should you find yourself at your base, with
your opponent pinning you down on the
A two-piayer space ship combat
game featuring split-screen display,
great graphics and sound
launchpad, you can select Defence from the
outfitting screen to take control of your base's
gun tower. You can then send a stream of
bullets flying towards the culprit.
Your weapons consist of your main gun and
a type of grenade which explodes on impact,
showering lots of little bullets around the
screen (which can damage you as well as your
opponent).
You can also change the way your gun fires
by going to the outfitting screen and selecting
options such as FB (for forward and back shots)
or Twin (for double barrel mayhem) under
Weaponry.
Utopos is shareware and to get the full game,
just send off a paltry £6 to the author.
Double
In medium resolution you have a screen size
which is 640 pixels wide and 200 pixels high.
High resolution is 640 pixels wide and 400
pixels high. Such resolutions are ideal for appli-
cations like word processors and desk top
publishing.
Would you like to increase these resolutions
for even more space? Well then, simply copy
the DOUBLE.PRG program to your AUTO
folder and reset your computer.
Double will not activate unless you hold one
of the SHIFT keys down while your STE boots
up.
Once activated, you will have either a
A neat utility for all STE
computers which doubles the
vertical resolution of medium or
high resolution screens
medium resolution of 640 x 400 or if you are
using a high resolution monitor, you get a reso-
lution of 640 x 800!
The extra space is available as you move the
mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen,
whereupon the screen will automatically scroll
down to show the extra space.
Atari ST User August i 994
disk
It's lift-off time from the base and time to track down your
opponent (that's me on the top half of the split screen display)
Aha! Found the
blighter. Now to
dispense death with a
hail of bullets
from my big gun
STart-it!!!
Boot managers are worth their weight in gold.
Having to constantly rename and de-activate
certain AUTO folder programs and accessories
by hand is a real pain.
With a boot manager, all this is handled for
you. You can even specify the order in which
programs in the AUTO folder are executed.
There are a few notable boot managers
around, such as the shareware utility
SuperBoot and the commercially available
Xboot.
STart-it!!! is just as good as these and offers
as many features, including sampled sounds and
graphic backdrops.
STart-it!!! also features a colour version of
David Becker's ZeST interface, which is a
collection of GFA source code providing an
interface similar to that used on NeXT
computers. In other words, it looks very nice
indeed. Previously, the ZeST interface only
A great boot manager utility to help
organise your accessories and
AUTO folder programs, featuring a
colour version of the GFA ZeST
interface
worked in monochrome, but the author of
STart-it!!! - Christian Ernst - has vastly modi-
fied the original ZeST source code to work in
colour. The modified source code is available
from him for any interested GFA users out
there.
STart-it!!! is shareware, so if you find your-
self using it regularly, be sure to register your
version with the author.
For instructions on installing and using
STart-it!!!, refer to the START_IT.DOC file.
If a fault turns up...
With thousands of disks being duplicated
each month, a few will inevitably be faulty.
Fortunately, we can help you. Send the faulty
disk to:
PC Wise, Dowlais Top Business Park, Mermyr
Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan CF48 2YY.
A replacement will be sent free of charge but
please allow 28 days for delivery.
If it wasn't for some very talented
shareware authors, the ST games
scene would be a lot duller. So, a big
round of applause goes out to
the authors/groups who support
shareware .
If you would like to see more share-
ware games for the ST, be sure to
support these people and send off the
suggested registration fee. You now it
makes sense.
liaaaitii'a&^iLJ
HF-i 5
5!
11
Fl |<J
If
Fl J
M
F3
:<
F<
ii
F! ' ,
It
Ft \S$
Bigj PKSHsieMfiyft j _l^4; stoHtm ra'&w
With its colour ZeST interface, Start-it!!! is one of
the most impressive looking boot managers
As with its competitors - SuperBoot and Xboot -
Start-it!!! can be configured to your personal tastes
Word Writer Deskjet drivers
A collection of HP Deskjet printer drivers for Timeworks'
Word Writer word processor
On the October '93 issue of Atari ST User, we
gave away the complete version of Word
Writer 2 from Timeworks. For those of you
with Hewlett Packard Deskjet printers, here
are a few drivers which will allow you to print
out your documents without any problems.
To instruct Word Writer to use any of these
drivers as the default driver, which is loaded
automatically when you run Word Writer,
simply rename your preferred driver to
DEFAULT. CFG (after renaming the current
DEFAULT.CFG driver to another name first).
CoverDisk hotline
As from this issue, the CoverDisk hotline
will no longer be available. Nearly all
callers to the hotline were having
CoverDisk problems which were due to
their unfamiliarity with the basics of
using an ST, such as copying files and
formatting disks.
Although CoverDisk instructions were
printed every month in the Disk Pages, a
large number of callers were absolute
beginners and had difficulty in under-
standing the instructions.
To address this problem, we will be
looking at running a regular beginners
tutorial feature in future issues, covering
the basics of using the desktop.
May we also remind readers who have
faulty disks that they should be returned
to the duplicator's address listed in the
Disk Pages.
Any other CoverDisk enquiries or
complaints need to be addressed to
Customer Services, Atari ST User,
Europress Publications, Europa House,
Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP
Atari ST User August 1994
Introduction
I'm a virtual novice when it comes to computer art packages, but I do understand
the laws that govern the success of any picture.
My aim is not to review these packages in the sense of fancy . . , .....
' r & / tools or facilities to
generate customised graphics, but to test them out for common sense use with
their brushes, colour and so on. At the same time I shall also be giving some tutorial
to help readers over the basic aspects of any piece of artwork.
In part one we have a very basic look at Cyberpaint and I offer a little advice on
the role of colour and the palette.
Are computer ar
packages the
future medium for
conventional
paper artists? Can
an oil and wat~
man find any us.
for such packages?
David Laraso goes
in search of
answers
i
i
'<r
' User August 1 994
Palette selection
The most time consuming task involved in producing a picture tends to be the g
palette creation. I've known people who have spent a week just setting up their
palette, so don't expect to get yours right in five minutes. SST"
When you're selecting colours for your palette, each colour must be right. This
sounds rather obvious, but if your selections are just slightly wrong the hues will mm
not be in(?)compatible.
You'll feel that something is wrong with the drawing or painting rather than
one of the colours. It's too late to find out that one of your colours is wrong after -
spending hours on your picture.
Adjusting one of your colours can adjust the whole relationship of your picture.
The best advice is to take time to adjust your palette to the best shades.\
* J iMltf w l «
But I haven't even picked up my mouse yet
You may not have drawn on a computer
before, but the concepts are not that
complicated. What will be difficult is learn-
ing the discipline required.
The most important lesson is to learn to
look around you at your world. Look at
how things are constructed and how every-
thing can be broken down into very basic
shapes.
Examine the relationship of the parts to
the whole. Although simple shapes are the
.best starting point, don't be scared of
complicated forms, because they all are just
groups of simple shapes merged together.
Do not accept what you see around you
but look and understand it. The key is to
train your hand to record w'
sees, which is only a matter of p, > u ^.
As a would-be artist whose enthusi-
asm exceeds his talent, I
have always steered away
from computer art
programs. Many of the
reasons for giving this
pixelled environment a
wide berth lie in distinct
differences in the
approach one must take.
Art students are taught a
completely different set of
ideals to the ones which apply to
computer art. This sounds a contradiction
in terms because laws of colour,
composition, perspective and position never
alter.
But the way in which the two mediums
reach their ultimate conclusions are glar-
ingly different. For example, the classic
school of water colour painting demands
that the artist builds the painting by devel-
opment of layers, a technique a computer
would never employ.
A water colour artist starts with the
lightest colours and builds them up.
Eventually these bring tone, can generate
shadow and give a painting depth or a feel-
ing of three dimensions. Conversely,
when using oils or acrylics the painter must
reverse the process and paint from dark to
light, with the highlight being the very last
addition.
There are other techniques that artists
employ concerning the use of brushes that
would seem on the surface to be impossible
for a computer to mimic. For instance,
many artists use "dry brushing" to lift wet
water-colour paint from the paper and so
create highlight.
To all intents and purposes, these
processes and others like them do not exist
within the realms of home computer art.
But computers like the Atari ST can, when
properly used, replicate some of the tech-
niques I have mentioned.
Of course, to give the home com-
puter credit, there are many tools
within art packages that can
render images that the
paper and paintbrush would take months to
generate.
Until recently I myself had never even
cast so much as a compositional glance
towards an art package. Call it intrigue, a
chance to scrutinise and find out whether
paint packages contain anything of any
credence or just an overriding feeling that
one should at least give these packages a
chance, but that was to change.
As a beginner, familiar only with tradi-
tional canvass, Bockingford water-colour or
varying grades of cartridge paper, the very
idea of using computer software to paint
feels quite unnatural.
Sitting in front of a monitor with the disk
drive buzzing itself into oblivion, there are
glaringly obvious differences that strike you
before the program has even had the
chance to load.
Most obvious is the mouse. The best
friend to the accomplished pixel artist bears
absolutely no resemblance to the shape of a
brush and responds with a totally different
feel.
The monitor screen too is an alien at
first. While many artists use easels to
produce their work, just as many work
practically horizontal, using the vertical axis
purely for washes (the technique a painter
uses to apply their lightest base colours on
water-colour work) which benefit from
gravity.
Another difference between conven-
tional methods of painting and
computer art is the matter of
composition.
In most paper artists' cases, the
size of canvas or paper used on a
piece will have been determined
in the artist's mind and the
composition will fall into place
around this.
Computer art software, while
allowing the user to link
segments together, doesn't give
any insight into the composition of
the piece.
If it seems as though I'm being
pedantic, let me tell you that the
difference between a piece of art being a
success and a failure can lie in the composi-
tion. The placement of any one object in a
picture that doesn't allow the eye to follow
on naturally from it around the piece can
ruin it.
Conversely, an object, while important to
the piece, if placed too centrally, will always
draw the eye towards it and unfortunately
its overbearing nature will mean the rest of
the piece is lost.
With these and other questions begging
to be asked, I decided to mix the metaphor-
ical pallet of Atari paint packages and
discover what advantages, disadvantages and
problems the absolute novice with an eye
might encounter.
Atari ST User August 1 994
feature
*WI
•-s.
WIWIII W II UUI II H III H I H I M IIHI W III H I M illl l H W WIWi H l l l HI I I '' H I)I M II M I H HIIII H II H I M W
: ."•' i I 'l r 1 1 f 1 > ! « t » 4 t'-~%
4 « M M H IN IN Ml M HO 11 1M
r i i nni i nn iiii iin ii m i n
MSftmawpnawtw west
SSSBsSSiaSiBSSKiw-- x
Although primitive, the
sky demonstrates the
first steps to dithering
Cyberpaint • Antic Publishing
Cyberpaint comes equipped with a handy little 120-page manual.
At first glance this is a rather daunting proposition, but its
language is fairly straightforward and to the point.
The manual is divided into two distinct sections: reference and
tutorial. While the reference section is extremely important for
the accomplished pixel artist, beginners will find that the tutorials
will become their bible if they are to progress.
That said, I dipped straight into Cyberpaint's pallet and experi-
mented with its fonts and brushes. Moving your mouse over one
of the 16 pre-set brushes and clicking activates its use. The major-
ity are unlike any formal paintbrush anyone will have seen, and
come in a wide array of shapes and sizes.
These vary from squares and dots all the way through to what
looks like a series of perforations, and can be used to achieve
shading effects, which we will discuss in a short while.
Aside from the standard brushes, you can construct a custom
brush. Cyberpaint's brush menu contains a 'Get Brush' option
which lets you grab a small portion of the screen. For this to work
you must have grabbed a portion of the screen that contains, at
the very least, some of the default background colour.
Once instigated, this brush is added to your brush menu, and
you can select it at your leisure. Also, using the zoom facility from
the tools menu allows you to construct some very complicated
custom brushes.
This all sounds very handy, but when I attempted to find any use
for it aside novelty value, it turned out to be of little help to any
drawing.
Perhaps the most important aspect of any paint package must
be the pallet. Cyberpaint's is found within the colour menu and
allows the user a maximum of 16 colours at any given moment. A
further 500 plus colours can be generated using the palette sub-
menu. This sends you to a display which can be adjusted by the
use of two boxes.
The box marked RGB (red, green, blue - the primary colours)
contains three sliding bars. Each bar is responsible for degrees of
one of the three primary colours and mixing combinations of
these produces varying intensities.
The second box is called the HLS, and is responsible for hue,
luminance and saturation. The hue is just another word for colour,
but when a colour is generated by the hue it loses none of its
purity (the amount of grey in the colour).
This system acts in the same manner as the artist's colour
wheel, the difference being that Cyberpaint uses a numerical
system to indicate differences in tone.
The big question though is whether Cyberpaint can operate in
the same way as an artist's colour wheel, and whether it can blend
The crystalise
effect works
wonders on circles
.— ,
offit
■ 1 '■
ip
y
a.
feature
H ->| Cut Restore
->| Pj n ite Use Clip
4l Ciipy Range \7.
The palette where
Cyberpaint's 26
colours can be
selected
Cyberpaint's
menu bar
displaying your
colours
tones in the same way as the traditional artist's method.
Cyberpaint has two commands which can help the budding
artist achieve such things as depth of field. These are the range
(which should be thought of as a blend option) and tint
commands.
After the user has selected two colours, the range option lets
Cyberpaint select the best variation of intermediate colours which
fall in between the two originally chosen.
Tint performs a similar task, but after you've selected the two
colours which require blending, Cyberpaint increases the RGB
values from left to right by one increment at each of the 1 4 posi-
tions.
If you wanted a range of blue from dark to light so you could
paint sky you would select a dark hue of blue at one end of your
scale, white at the other, and then lighten your blue very gradually.
The theory is that having this range of blues will enable the
artist to bleed the hypothetical sky scene from dark blues down to
a very pale horizon.
In reality, even when using the zoom facility, Cyberpaint's ability
to perform this vital task is limited. The reason for this is that the
pixel sizes that Cyberpaint operates in are just too large, and leave
a noticeable difference in tone, giving a lined effect.
This same rule is true when you attempt shading. An abrupt
shadow cast by a strong sun is no problem because the contrast
and change in tone takes place instantly. But if you consider the
intricate shading and delicate highlights contained on a human face,
Cyberpaint's tonal contrasts have no chance of generating any
realism.
The basic problem is that Cyberpaint operates within the
boundaries of 16 colours while to achieve smooth changes in
tone, you needs to experiment on a package that uses a 256-
colour pallet.
That said, there are other ways of achieving shading. A pencil
artist will sometimes use a technique called cross-hatching (see
pic). This is possible using Cyberpaint's brushes, but is an
extremely time consuming principle to execute.
On a brighter note, Cyberpaint contains several features that an
artist could never hope to accomplish in a short time. It allows
you to create any polygon or circle very quickly, has animation
facilities and some fairly unique effects.
The effects are used to distort or change an image that has
previously been drawn — something a paper and pencil artist
couldn't do in his wildest dreams. The most impressive of these
options is the crystalise effect. It's much too complex to explain
here, but works best in conjunction with a simple shape like a
circle.
Different effects to
draw with make
Cyberpaint slightly
more versatile
More colour please
The more colours available on your
computer, the better the quality of your
pictures will be. On standard ST comput-
ers, you are limited to 16 colours from a
palette of 5 1 2, which by today's standards
is somewhat limiting.
The STE range of computers improves
things slightly by giving an increased
palette of 4096 colours to choose from,
although you still only get 16 colours on
screen at once.
There are third party hardware boards,
such as Crazy Dots, which are hardware
upgrades that increase the colour capabil-
ity of standard STs, but, they are not
cheap.
With the release of Atari's Falcon
computer, but high quality graphics finally
became available to the average user as a
standard feature.
In its highest colour mode, called
TrueColour, the Falcon is capable of
displaying over 32,000 colours chosen
from a palette of a staggering 16.8 million
colours. This kind of graphics quality
means photo-realistic images can be
displayed and manipulated.
This puts the Falcon way ahead of many
PC's which use 256 colours in their games.
The two pictures shown here illustrate
the difference in quality between 16
colour (bottom) and 256 colours (Top).
As you can see, shading is more subtle
giving a superior appearance to the
picture.
Atari ST User August 1 994
TUMBLEVANE PDL
6 West Road, E>ept STU, Emsworth, Hampshire, POlO 7JT
Telephone: Emsworth (0243) 370600
DISK PRICES:
£1*75 each.
unless otherwise
stated
UTA01: THE HITCHIKERS UTILITIES, which includes a
document displayer, BOOTDRTVE, select which drive
to boot from. BOOTWAIT, boot up both the ST and
hard drive at the same time. BSSS, store boot sectors.
CUSTOM, allows you to create disks of almost any
format. DISKAT, database your collection and many
more. With full manual.
UTA02: STICKER 3, create labels for your disks with a selection
of icons that printout onto the label.
UTA03: FASTBASE DEMO, ICON, change your desktop icons.
HEADSTART, auto boot any type of program from
an auto folder. ON SCHEDULE, work schedule
program with bells a very good printout routine.
UTA05: SUPERCARD V1.3, an index card database, easy to use
and very fast search feature. Comes with a database of
game cheats. CHEF, an electronic cookbook with 300
recipes each with cooking instructions and
ingredients.
UTA19: TLC BOOK, an excellent on line address book and date
reminder which holds up to 500 names and
addresses. Has a good printout routine. DATABASE,
a good database construction kit. SUPERBOOT,
allow you to create custom bootup disk. TARADESK,
a good PD desktop replacement program.
COCKTAIL SELECTOR, a database of cocktails
(600+).
UTA06: FASTCOPY 3, A-COPY, PRO-COPY and several other
copying programs and utilities. ZAPMENU, a great
way of launching programs from the desktop.
ARCSYS, one of the better arc progs. PACK ICE, the
other arc program.
UTA28: AWARD MAKER, a useful program for producing
award certificates. Design your own or use one of the
120 already on the disk.
UTA34: DB NLASTER 1, this has got to be the best answer to
your database problems, design and configure your
own! Verv easy to use.
UTA36: DATA EDITOR, enter your data and the program
turns it into easv to read graphs. PIE, BUBBLE,
OPPOSED BARS, FLOATING BAR, 3D BAR, STAR
BAR graphs can be produced, stored and updated at
any time. Many students have used this program for
their course work.
UTA37: WG DATA, another database, but for younger users to
learn how to construct and use a database. For the
1 1+. DATABASE CONSTRUCTION SET, a powerful
program that allows the user to design your own way
of processing information. SANDP, a
newsletter/magazine program.
UTA39: IDEALIST V3.1, a versatile program for printing out
text and offering lots of helpful functions to use your
print in clever ways. 4 selectable sizes, up to 9
columns, separate output of fonts and pages, editable
headlines and includes fonts for dot matix and
laserjets.
UTA40: CALAMUS SUPPORT DISK, METACON, converts
Calamus fonts to Text metafonts. FASTPRT,
accessory to speed up printing to the HP laser.
GUNTH, sample graphics in outline format.
LASLABEL, template for printing 3.5 inch disk labels.
CANON printer driver for the BJ10E.
CAL_FNT text file describing Calamus font format.
HPDJPTCH, a patch for the HP deskjet printer and a
few other small programs.
UTA43: A disk full of accessories and utilities, ideal disk for
those who do not wish to buy a disk for each type of
utility.
UTA45: MAILMERGE, a good program for those with a WP
package without this utility.
UTA46: INVENTORY PRO, an easy to use inventor)' system
and stock control for the small business.
UTA48: SAGROTAN V1.14, THE VIRUS KILLER in the PD
world.
UTA51: 70,000 word dictionary, replace your standard spelling
checker with this and you will be onto a winner.
UTA52: FOOD AND WINE MENU MAKER, an excellent
database that stores and prints out a menu for both
wine and food.
UTA53: GERMAN TRANSLATE, one of the better translation
programs that makes sense of those German
documents on some PD disks. Does it all foryou.
UTA55: HP CHROME, prints colour pictures in Degas and Neo
format utilising deskjet printers. HYPERBASE, a
multi media database, you can create windows
holding test, graphics or sound and link them
together. CL1PART, for use with Hyperbase.
UNTPR1NT, a Hi res Degas Elite printing program for
24 pin printers.
UTA56: HP DESKJET UTILITY DISK I, printer drivers for use
with ist Word. ENVELOPE PRINTER, JETLABEL,
JETSET, set parameters on your deskjet. LASERJET,
print at 300 dpi and loads of other useful utilities.
UTA57: ASTUBANK, a personal accounts program that will tell
you how much you can spend in anv one month.
UTA58: HARD DISK UTILITIES, everything you need to look
after and maintain your hard drive.
UTA60: MANUAL MAKE, a utility for putting together neat
and tidy printed manuals.
STARTER PACKS
SPECIAL PRICES
Any 5 disks for
£6.99
Any 10 disks for
£12.49
ART
GAM]
Towers Dungeon Master Game. 2 disks. £2.95.
GMI3: FMC trading, space trading game. Laserbail & Regatta,
sail against 10 other countries.
GM2I: Liamatron 8c Revenge of the Mutant Camels, as above
but from die Master of such games, Jeff Minter.
GM26: Airways, Flight Sim (not a blaster).
GM27: Blaster, defender type game. Wheel of Fortune, as per the
TV show. Monopoly & Pentominoes.
GM38: Pipe Perfect, build your pipeline before the flow starts.
GM40: Tennis, Plumb Crazy, build a pipeline again. Virus Killer,
a so-so virus killer.
GM42: Penguins, a Lemmings type game with 40 levels. Great
fun, good enough to be a commercial game
GM43: Mystic Well, a very addictive Dungeon Master game
from the USA with loads of levels and puzzles to sort
out.
GM48: Crossword Editor, create and solve crosswords.
GM52: Battle for the Throne, a great RPG that takes some time
to complete.
G.M54: Bog, Fuzzball, Trivia, Time Bandit, Wall Street, Quizwiz
8c Yahtzee. Quizzes and blasters all on one disk.
GM69: Ozone, an award winning platform game that has
everything in it, including a hang glider.
GM76: Master Break, good Breakout clone. Atom, Blaster &
Spaceball.
GM75: Drachen, a 3D Mahjong game. Super Game, a good track
and field game.
GM78: Violence, a very good Xenon type shoot -em-up game.
GM87: Pub Games, Pool, Darts, Cribbage, Pontoon and
Checkers.
GM88: Hunt for Grey November, control your hunter-killer
plane in its search for rogue sub's.
GM97: Fatemaster, a great arcade romp on an alien planet with
an alien super spy. 1 Meg.
GMI06: Mindlock, another great quiz game from D.
Cobbledick. 1 Meg.
GMI09: Colour clash, from the same people who gave us
Fatemaster, this time you need to use the grey matter as
well as the trigger.
GM!13:Galaxians&Mrs. Munchie, two blasts from the past. A
Pacman clone and Space Invaders given a revamp.
GM ! 1 4: Course Angler, a good game and a fun way to learn how
to fish, no sitting around for hours once you know.
GMI20: Brain Damage, D. Cobbledick at his very best Watch
your brain cell count drop as you fail to answer the
questions.
GMI21: Walls of Illusion, a new Dungeon Master tvpe game
with commercial qualitv graphics and gameplav. THIS
IS A MUST HAVE
GM123: Bludgeon: Fantasy D&D combat game.
GM 1 24: Startrek: The Klingon war battle simulation.
GM125: Geofran: Guide a lunar probe and battle with
underground forces.
GM128: Software Projects: Software Company 8c Simulation -
develop your company.
GM129:Tecmatroid.
GM 1 32: Quest for Knowledge.
GM 1 33: Snacmac - the best Pacman clone.
AAG0I: PALETTE MASTER art package. DEGASAVE, save the
screen in Degas format. MANDEL, Mandelbrot prog. Plus a
few other small progs.
AAG04: DALI ¥3.1, art package from France. Not much in the way
ofinstructions.
AAG05: CRACKART V1.0, almost the last word in art packages
comes with complete English manual. 1 Meg required.
AAG06: FRACTAL ZOOM, probably the fastest generator of fractals
around. Full manual on the disk.
AAG07: A disk full of Fractal programs and utilities. A 3D CAD
program. Full manual on disk.
AAG10: ST CAD, runs in Med or Hi res. DBANNER, printout 5
inch text along printer paper. REMINDER 8c MEMO 8:
LOOKER
AAG 1 1 : ANI ST, a great animation projpm that once sold for over £80.
AAG21: Picture Converter, a complete disk of picture converters.
SHOWTRLX, display your art work with different fades
between each one.
AAG22: PUBLIC PAINTER, an art package for mono monitor
owners. On disk manual.
AAG26: PICTURE WORKS, ioad, save various picture formats and
do amazing things with them.
AAG27: M1NIDRAFT VI. 10, easy to use CAD prog.
AAG2S: MONOJC Viewer, copy clipart, add text and draw simple
dipart, you can also print out and save in most formats.
AAG29: PAINTPOT, a simple and easy to use art package for half
meg owners.
AAG35: CREATIVE TITLES, create tides for your Christmas videos,
add the professional touch.
AAG38: CRACKART V1.36, the latest version of this excellent art
package with several new' features. 1 Meg.
AAG39: ATARI IMAGE MANAGER, whatever you need to do with
images this is almost sure to do it. 2 disk set.
AAG50-52: 3 disks of Wedding Clipart. £4.50.
AAG54: Kozmic 4. Create psychedelic patterns.
INKJET REFILL PACKS
TWIN REFILL PACK FOR DESKJET AND
BUBBLEJET
BLACK £10.00
COLOUR £11.50
TWIN REFILL PACK FOR THE HP HI CAPACITY
BLACK £16.75
COLOUR £18.00
TRICOLOUR PACK
A tri colour pack will recycle the three colour
cartridges for the HP 500c or 550c three times. . .
this would cost you around £100 in originals.
Each pack costs just £21.00
We also stock bottles of ink. If you already have a
syringe why not just purchase the ink.?
60ml bottle of ink. Refill Canon BJ printers four times
or HP 500 two times for only £8.00
500ml, 1 litre and 5 litre size bottles also available.
Please call for a quote.
CLEANING KITS
Each cleaning kit will clean out three cartridges ready for
new colours to be injected. Each pack costs just £4.95
A CATALOGUE DISK with our complete range of software is available for
just 50p with any order or for £1.00 without an order.
The disk has over 200k of free PD and a selection of secondhand
commercial software for sale.
CRACKART
V1.36
Now for the first time with full
English Manual. Ask for AAG038.
ROOTFINDER V.2
Now with graphical map of Britain
with superb magnification.
AskforMISC015
SPRITE WORKS
• A powerful new set of commands for GFA
Basic versions 3 and above from Organise
Chaos.
• Turn GFA Basic into a games language with
Sprite design & two MAP designers.
£7.00
EDUCATION
EAC0I2: Easter Egg Hunt for children 5-12 years. Find all the Easter
Eggs & take them through the magic door to win. Good fun.
EACfl 1: PERFECT MATCH, question and answer card game, MATHS
TEST. For the under 10's. QUIZICAL, a good general
knowledge trivia game.
EAC02; BODY SEARCH, designed to help children learn the human
anatomy as required in elementary and junior school. THE
SEARCH, a computer aided enquiry program. Search the
village for info about the Gliggs family. MATHMAZE, a very
good maths program that grows with the student TRIVIA,
another good general knowledge test, some of the questions
are based on the USA.
EAC06: SHIPWRECK, an excellent maths program that combines
graphics and easy and hard levels of play. The childs interest is
held by turning the learning process into a game where
correct answers help the character on the screen to escape his
fete. HANGMAN, the old school room favourite that helps
with spelling
EAC07: ABOUT THE HOUSE control a butterfly as it moves around
the house. As it lands on various objects a description is given
and some animation takes place. ME, displays four pictures of
a task that must be placed in the right order, once this is done
the scene is animated. Help the child undstand that most
tasks need several steps to complete.
EAC09: CHUNNEL, a good French/English tutor. SPANISH VERB
TUTOR, this program is designed to help you leam, revise or
check the proper conjugation of Spanish verbs, can be
initialized to communicate in French, English, Spanish or
German.
EAC 10: NOAHS ARK, a good game for teaching children spelling and
word recognition. SPIDER SPELL, a very good spelling aid
for younger children.
EAC! 1: MATHS MADE EASY, for the younger ST user, the program
teaches maths in all four disciplines by talking to the user thus
keeping interest levels high. GEOGRAPHY QUIZ, one for the
slightly old user, the test is based on flags or capitals of the
world.
EAC18: THE WORLD, an excellent program that teaches you about
and quizzes you on the countries of the world.
EAC19: PLANETARIUM, if you are into astronomy then this is for
you. Pick a star from the map and dick on it and all the info
you want is there. It will also animate past or future events.
Full manual on the disk. MONO.
EAC20. TELLTALE CHEMISTRY by E Mills Bsc, PhD. An interactive
program on the basics of chemistry, the program relates to
GCSE grades A, B and C, good graphics & explanations of
atomic structure, electron structure, formulae compounds, etc.
EAC21: CIA WORLD FACTBOOK, a four disk set of everything you
want to know about over 240 countries. If you wnat to know
how many people live in Albania, what the birth rate is, death
rate, who they are upset with, where they sell their products
or just about anything else men this is for you. A document
display is also included on the disk. £5.00 for the set
EAG3: Picts to Parliament
LAC34: KVaddup.
EAG5: Benjamins ABC
EAC36: Maths Circus.
EAC37: GCSE Maths.
EAC38: Animal Sound.
EACH* MOLSYS.
DTP&WP
WPD01: ST WRITER ELITE V4.1, an excellent WP package
that works in all three resolutions.
WPD02: EASY TEXT + DEMO, a fully working demo of this
DTP program but you can only print out the top
quarter of any A4 page.
WPD03: TYPING TUTOR, teach yourself touch typing with
this program, several levels of lessons have been
built into the program.
WPD05: FIRST WORD, an excellent WP program that
features WYSIWYG on the screen. 1ST WORD
UTILITIES, help with 1st Word. DOUBLE TTP,
print your text in columns. LARGEPRINT, lets
you printout in large text.
WPD12: OPUS V2.2, a very good spreadsheet program with
an excellent chart printout routine.
WPD15: PRINTER DRIVERS for 1st Word users covers just
about every make of printer, comes with full
installer & instructions. WORD COUNTER.
WPTOOLS, a selection of WP utilities for 1st
Word.
WPD18: PAGESTREAM FONTS, Postscript screen fonts for
the following fonts:- Artistic, Creative, Hudson,
Letter, Gothic, Oriental, Saturn, University and
Roman.
WPD19: PRINTING PRESS V3.10, the closest thing to a full
DTP program in PD. Also on the disk is a picture
converter.
WPD22: PRINTING PRESS EXTRA'S, a disk for use with
WPDI9 containing extra fonts and clipart.
WPD23: DB WRITER V 1 .8, a very good WP program for Hi
res users which can be used by both half meg and 1
meg machines. A manual on the disk gives a good
guide to the program.
WPD24: DB WRITER SUPPORT DISK, includes a
comprehensive thesaurus and a selection of
dictionaries covering Medical, Legal, Computer
and Biblical terms. You can also add your own
with a utility on the disk.
WPD25: A utility for designing and downloading fonts to the
STAR NL10 & LCI0. Hi res only with loads of
fonts ready to use. Can be used with an emulator.
WPD26: GUTENBERG PRESS, allow a 9 pin dot matrix
printer to be used as a NLQ printer, load in ASCII
files and print them out in high quality format and
a selection of fonts.
WPD31&32: Gem fonts (2 disks).
MUSIC AND MIDI
MUM01: ACCOMPiANTST, a 16 voice sequencer for use
with any model of ST, with room for over 10,000
notes, multi-recording with separate MIDI
channels and a wide range of editing utilities.
MUM02: IN CONTROL, a user definable MIDI controller
with over 20 sliders that can be programmed to
control your midi instruments. SCONVERT,
compress or expand sound samples.
MUM18: 1632 voices for use with the Yamaha DT/TX series
of 6 operator synths with a file reader for loading
the voices directly via the midi. A varied and useful
range of voices on the disk.
MUM19: TRI-SOUND SEQUENCER, a chip/digi-chip 3
channel music sequencer.
MUM20: SAMPLE EDITING DISK, a disk full of useful
programs for editing, sampling and converting.
Also on the disk is a chip music tracker to create
your own music.
MUM21: MIDIDRUM & MIDIPLAY, two useful programs
for creating sounds with a drum machine and
Midiplay is a basic sequencer. German documents
with English version on disk. 1 meg and Mono.
MUM22: TX81Z V2.1, a mouse driven Yamaha TX81z
editor. MIDIMOVER, a powerful midi file
converter from Hvbred Arts Freeware.
MUM24: ALCHIME Jr V2.22, this has got to be one of the
best musical sequencers for the Atari anywhere.
Comes with over 200 tracks for your use and has
far too many features to list
MUM57: FINAL SCORE, a graphic based fully WYSIWYG
score writing program from Mainstream Music.
Draw staves, line squares, 5 selectable score fonts,
print preview mode, etc. Printer drivers now added
for most makes of printer.
MUM58: ROLAND 'D' SERIES SOUND BANKS, a bank of
tones for the D5, DI0, D20, Dl 10 and GR synths.
GERMAN TRANSLATE
NOW UPDATED
Superior automatic translation.
AWARD MAKER
now with full instructions. 286
awards on disk.
PRINTING PRESS
Plus Support. Compressed on one
disk. English version £2.95
graphics
Imagecopy 3 is the latest version of a
highly acclaimed screen grabbing,
conversion and printing utility writ-
ten by Jeremy Hughes, of Fontkit
Plus fame, and sold exclusively through
the FaST Club.
It runs as an accessory or as a stand-
alone program and supports almost all
the popular makes of colour printer,
providing a high degree of control over
many aspects of output, and has exten-
sive support for various graphics
formats. It also features tried and tested
support for all the Falcon colour modes,
as well as large and virtual screens.
Colour images are neatly dithered to
full screen for monochrome monitors
and an unlimited number of images can
be displayed in movable GEM windows,
operating system support permitting.
So if version 2 is this good, how can
version 3 better it?
First of all it has enhanced support for
both mono and colour printers including
the HP Deskjet, HP Laserjet, Epson-
compatible 9 and 24-pin printers (such as
the Star range), NEC 24 pin, Epson
Inkjets and Bubblejets in both IBM and
Epson emulation modes. Colour
composites or separations can be
printed, with or without the black
component, and there are dozens of
options for colour dithering and halftone
angle.
FORMATS
Colour balance can be altered using
sliding bars and the amount of each
CMYK component can be adjusted if
necessary, plus saturation, brightness and
contrast. In other words, you get more
control over your colour printer than
you ever thought possible.
Imagecopy can load and view a large
number of graphics files, including
almost all the Atari-specific formats as
well as many from other platforms.
The list covers Degas, Tiny, NEO,
Spectrum, Calamus Raster Graphics
(CRG), Doodle, Portable Bitmap,
Pixart's proprietary format, RSC,
TruePaint (TPI), PCX, GIF, Prism Paint
(PNT), IFF, TIFF, Windows Bitmap
(BMP), Targa, and JPEG. PhotoCD
support may be added depending on
demand.
In addition, Imagecopy 3 can save files
in many more formats than before,
including Degas, GIF, IFF, XIMG, PCX,
PNT, Targa, JPEG, TIFF and BMP.
There are several options for many of
the file formats. For example, GIF files
can be saved with any number of colour
bits from I to 8 and mapped to the
Inagecopy
BBB1.TIF
Printer iype
Dithering
Colours
Print layout
-opying
ii ndows
References
Andrew Wright looks at
the latest release of one of
the most popular Atari
graphics utilities - now in
its third incarnation
In ST low resolution, there isn't much room
current palette. TIFF files can be saved
uncompressed or with RLE (run length
encoding) or LZW compression, again
with any number of colour bits from I to
24.
Any JPEG quality can be specified too,
although the recommended setting is
between 75 and 95. Support for the
Brainstorm decoder hasn't yet been
implemented though, due to delays in
obtaining documentation.
A number of things have been greatly
improved in the new version of
Imagecopy. Dithering is better and load-
ing files appears to be slightly faster,
particularly with compressed files like
GIFs. One notable new feature is the
configurable slideshow that uses the
Falcon's overscan mode.
BATCH MODE
Another particularly nice feature is
that multiple files can be loaded using
two methods. Firstly Imagecopy now
uses the protocol developed for
the Selectric replacement file selector,
allowing several files to be selected in
the file selector window, and then auto-
matically loaded or converted one after
the other.
Secondly it is possible to create list
files using the supplied standalone utility
both for loading and conversion. In this
way you can create a list of all source
images and tell Imagecopy to view, print
or convert them one after the other in a
kind of batch mode.
Imagecopy 3 also has an updated
interface - similar to that in Textstyle -
with easily accessed keyboard shortcuts.
The appropriate key is always underlined
in the menu so that you never need
On the Falcon, Imagecopy
really comes into its own
learn the appropriate sequence of
buttons. You can also define your own
as in later versions of TOS. Support for
Crazy Dots graphics cards is included as
well as VDI options for non-standard
displays.
The manual wasn't available at
the time of review but it will have
almost doubled in size by the time
Imagecopy 3 goes on sale in the
next few weeks. As the previous
manual is like an encyclopaedia of
graphics on the ST, I'm sure
nobody will be disappointed!
Imagecopy has certainly proved
itself to be one of the most
successful Atari graphics utilities there is.
Without a doubt version 3 takes it
out of the utility league and almost into
the realms of a complete graphics
application. With its batch conversion
of files, excellent slideshow mode
and new keyboard-friendly interface, it
has matured into an essential Atari
program.
COMPREHENSIVE
Although the screen grabbing features
are primarily for journalists (show me an
ST magazine that doesn't rely on
Imagecopy for its screenshots!),
programmers and manual writers, it has
plenty to offer the casual user who
needs comprehensive conversion capa-
bilities, highly configurable colour output
and the ability to view images whenever
the need arises. In a nutshell, it's a
program no serious Atari user should be
without.
BOTTOM LINE
FEATURES
Great for just about
everything to do with
images
Good *
Average
Bad
Appalling
EASE OF USE
Simple to install and use
and comes with a superb,
informative manual
■35HTT3T^W
Good *
Average
Gad
Appalling
VALUE FOR MONEY
Excellent
Definitely great value
for money
Average *
Bad
Appalling
Product: Imagecop
*3
Supplier: The ST C
ub, 2 Broadway,
Nottinghc
im NG1 IPS
Telephone: 0602 41
0241
Price: £29.95
Configuration: Any ST/S
TE in any
resalutior
I
Atari ST User August 1 994
Dianond Back File Action Options Select Help
Dlwond Back 3 - Backup Options
Select options for backing up your hard drive
Select Files
Hard Disk C: volune:
■J t ) Hard Disk D: volune:
Advanced Options
Diamond Back's main backup menu
Floppy Disk
Start Backup
Dianond Back File Action Options Select Help
Sele
Back
advanced Backup Options
Bad
Back
Back
Encryption:
Destination
Folder:
SCSI Tape
Options:
□ Ho Encryption
D Encryption Password I
H Root Directory
D Place in Folder:
□ Append to Tape
E3 Overwrite Tape
B Erase Tape First
E3 Rewind after Backup
□ Retension Tape
□ Innediate Connands
D Do Hot Conpress files
with extensions:
ARC LZH ZIP ZOO PC"! TNV jPfj GIF
are excludes By default
Clear Archive Bit
ID Ho Change to fl-Bit
<8
OK
s77nt?ra
1.1=1 1 "'*"
Start Backup
Even in ST high resolution, the interface is impressive
It'll never happen to me" is
a thought that runs
through all our minds at
some point whether it's
about crossing the road or winning the
pools. Now I'm perfectly prepared to
believe that winning the pools will never,
ever happen to me but let's face it - a
car crash or some other mishap might
be just round the corner.
While most accidents are best left
unimagined, I can almost guarantee that
pretty soon my hard disk will crash or
corrupt. That's based purely on experi-
ence because it has done so several times
with monotonous regularity and the
consequences, while far from cata-
strophic, have been extremely embarrass-
ing in terms of missed deadlines. I can still
remember the time I had to write a 3,000
word article again from scratch...
There are various strategies you can
adopt for safeguarding the data on your
hard disk, whether it's a saved game,
your favourite PD program or some
important business files.
Firstly you can take more care of your
hard disk by using defragmenting utilities
such as Diamond Edge or ICD Cleanup.
This means the chances of a disaster are
lower, but in some cases it can actually
speed up the process. No utility is 100%
safe, particularly as bugs in early versions
are rarely publicised and you might well
be using a version that's had several
important updates since.
Secondly you can back up your data
onto floppy disk, tape drive or a second
hard drive, perhaps even a removable
one. There are various ways of doing
Andrew Wright test drives
Diamond Back 3, a new hard
disk backup utility
this. You can use a PD utility like The
Vault or Turtle, old but reliable
programs that do a good job for thou-
sands of users. Alternatively you can do
it manually, by copying all your important
files using the desktop or dedicated file
managers like Maxifile. Or you can get
Diamond Back, a comprehensive backup
program with more bells and whistles
than you'll ever need.
PROTECTION
Backup programs have their limita-
tions however. Even if you have backed
up your entire hard disk to floppy the
night before, everything you've done
today will be lost if the worst comes to
the worst. In fact, the only way to really
protect current data is to save every-
thing twice, once onto the hard drive
and again onto a second drive or floppy.
That way, a disaster such as a disk crash
won't mean you have to start again.
To be really ahead of the gremlins that
will one day find their way into your
system, a combination of all these tech-
niques is required. With a program like
Diamond Back, you can make a full
backup of all your important data and
then make regular incremental backups,
including only the files that have
changed or have been added to specific
directories.
Diamond Back 3 comes on a single
disk with a well produced 58-page spiral
bound manual inside a glossy box.
Installation is via a custom utility that
embeds your name and address in the
program. The installation program then
creates a directory on whichever drive
you choose for installation and copies all
the files from the master disk. It
then checks for attached devices, includ-
ing hard drives, tape streamers and
floppies.
It's at this point that you start to
notice the stunning interface. Diamond
Back is now completely mouse
controlled, unlike its predecessor which
had a much less intuitive interface. Most
options are selected using pop-up lists
and each has its own icon, making the
program highly intuitive and easy to use.
The manual has a quick start section and
a detailed part which deals with the
program's feature in more depth.
Diamond Back offers both file and
image backup and full or partial restora-
tion of files. File backup is the normal
Number crunching
Files can be compressed or encrypted, depending on your needs, and
disks can be formatted by the program or simply erased and written
over without changing the number of sectors and tracks. This is a useful
feature as the type of format does not matter — standard ST disks can
be mixed with extended format disks without any problem. If a problem
occurs on a disk, the program recovers and lets you insert a new disk
without ruining the backup set. The program will format disks to the
standard 720k or 1.44Mb as well as 800k and 1.62Mb but can obviously
write to any pre-formatted disk. You can also back up to other hard disk
partitions, Floptical, Syquest drives and even SCSI tape streamers and
DAT drives.
Compression ratios, which use a variation on the LZW algorithm, are
fairly good — backing up a 47Mb partition of mixed data, including
programs, fonts, image files and a good sprinkling of already archived
files (which are spotted by the program and not compressed further),
the data was squashed down to 3 1 Mb and squeezed onto 23 high density
floppies. Without compression, the backup took 36 floppies, making it
the slower option as more disks had to be written. If you're backing up to
tape or other partitions, compressed backups take roughly twice as long.
Speed is important too, of course, as a slow backup program just
won't get used, human nature being what it is. Diamond Back is very fast
and writes disks at very respectable speeds.
Atari ST User August 1 994
feature
You can't be too sure
To help you, backup sets can be saved and called up from pop-up lists when-
ever necessary, including the specified paths and other parameters. Log files
tell you what is in a particular backup, whether it is compressed and how
many disks it is spread over. This goes some way towards correcting a defi-
ciency in version 2 that meant you couldn't readily tell whether a backup was
compressed or not. Both logs and backup sets can have identifiable names,
making it possible to set up quite complex backup strategies with the mini-
mum of fuss.
Search masks and wild cards can be used when backing up and there are
plenty of options to choose from, such as inclusion and exclusion masks.
This flexibility means you can build up detailed backup configurations to
save you time and effort, backing up only the data and configuration files, for
example, and leaving program files which can always be re-installed from the
master disks if necessary.
Diamond Back also offers real time validation which ensures that the file is
put back exactly as it was by checking for errors, though this does slow down
the backup process.
Diamond Back File fiction Options Select Help
9 Diawond Sack 3 - Restore Opti
Select options for restoring files to your hard drive
Restore Options
Restore Log File:
|l Rebuilt Log D:
Restore Save Set:
Restore Method:
=f GEM File Restore
Restore Froni
|H Hard Disk
Restore To:
m »! 6/08/94 9:47PM
Restore Specific Files:
Select Files
Currently Selected for Restore
i- Folder;: 151
S Files: isffi
Bytes! :-,:::,:I:
Hard Disk C
Hard Disk D
Hard Disk E
Hard Disk F
Uo lune :
volune:
Uolune:
Uolune:
Start Restore
The restore options are well presented — this is ST medium res
prepared!
Dianand Back 3 Installation Progran
By ReWM D. uxwsfci 8i9w o^egsn Re**areh
This progran Hill register and install your new copy of Dianond Sack.]
8 directory called DS3 Hill be created on the install disk, fill of
the neccessary files Hill he copied to their correct locations,
Please conolete and return your product registration card, it is
required receive product support, Please carefully read the nanus!
The installation program
approach, saving data file by file, but
image backup can also be useful. Image
backup means saving a hard disk parti-
tion to floppy disk sector by sector
instead of file by file. Image backup is
intelligently handled and only the sectors
that are used will be backed up. There is
even support for Spectre GCR
partitions.
Full restore simply restores all the
data back onto the hard disk while
partial restore lets you restore specified
files. Full or incremental backups are also
supported so you can do a full hard disk
backup once a month, for example, and a
daily incremental backup by archive bit
or date.
A progress window is shown while
backup is being carried out so you can
see how far you've got and even pause
or quit halfway through. The pause
option lets you stop the program
temporarily to access another such as a
desk accessory. This is handy for receiv-
ing faxes, bringing up an address database
or even doing some urgent filing opera-
tions if you use a custom file selector.
Disk usage is estimated and updated
by the program so you can see at any
stage how many more floppy disks you
need to scrabble around for. The
number is updated in real time but no
account is taken of likely compression
ratios or the time already taken and the
remaining time to completion which I
found somewhat disappointing.
Whenever a new disk is requested, a
sensible dialogue appears that offers you
the option to inspect the disk first —
just in case you have doubts about
what's on it — or simply carry on and
overwrite the contents. You can also
choose to format at this stage if you
suddenly find you need more disks and
have to open a new box of unformatted
blanks.
COMPRESSION
On the main menu screen, all options
are selectable from icons or pop-up
menus. A small button bar in the top left
corner offers compression on or off, the
option to split files between disks, over-
write or format all floppies, skip, prompt
or overwrite files with the same name
and validation on or off. Splitting files
between disks can save a lot of space,
particularly if you have some big files that
don't fit on one disk.
Once you have backed up your data,
the more nervous users can immediately
check that everything has gone to plan
by verifying the complete backup. This is
often useful if you have very important
data or you suspect that one disk in a set
has been damaged.
Diamond Back also runs in the back-
ground under multitasking systems such
as MultiTOS, which means that you can
back up your hard drive while you're
writing or doing your
accounts, as long as
you're prepared to be
prompted for a new
disk every minute or
two.
You can specify
how much system
time the program gets
and the maximum read
size for any file, which
helps make the multitasking smoother. In
theory, the program will also allow
multitasking with GEM event-driven desk
accessories such as Harlekin but this isn't
recommended as the system slows down
enormously and becomes a lot more
unstable in my opinion. Indeed, trying to
use Imagecopy at the same time as
performing a backup resulted in a good
old-fashioned system crash.
Diamond Back 3 is an excellent
program with a lively interface, especially
on colour systems such as the Falcon,
and a marvellous array of options.
Whether existing version 2 users need
to upgrade will depend on how often
they use it. The major changes are in the
look and feel rather than the functional-
ity but the added support for SCSI tape
drives, better compression and enhanced
reporting and configurability means it
won't be money wasted.
BOTTOM LINE
FEATURES
A superbly designed
program with scores of
essential backup features
EASE OF USE
Completely mouse driven
with a thorough, easy to
read manual
VALUE FOR MONEY
Good value given the
features but it could do with
being lower
Good *
Average
Bad
Appalling
0000 h
Average
Bad
appalling
Excellen^^
flverage^^*
Bad
appalling
Product: Diamond Back 3
Supplier: HiSoft, The Old School,
Greenfield, Bedford
MK45 5DE
Telephone: Q525 7181B1
Price: £49.95
Configuration: All Atari's except in low
resolution
Atari ST User August 1 994
Atari Joystick
Trackball
Mouse
This is an unbeatable offer for mil
garners - an Atari joystick for just
EE.99.
It's ideal for anyone, but espe-
cially for those who would like a
second stick ready as
a spare for visiting
friends. With easy
access Fire buttons
on both sides of
its small case,
this model is
suitable for
left and right-
handed
players and
fits ^^^^
comfortably into the
hand.
ONLY
£2.99
DataView monitor
This SVGA high resolution mono
monitor has been specially
modified to work on all STs and is
ideal for such applications as DTP,
music and word-processing.
It features a 14-inch FST screen
for superb
picture
qualitg and
has front
mounted
controls for
power,
brightness
and contrast.
Also featured is a swivel base and
rear controls for picture size and
positioning.
Also included is a cable adapter
which has a small built-in speaker
and an audio connector which
allows you to connect it to a hi-fi
system.
ONLY
104.99
71 Atari ST User August 1994
Ever fancied a mouse alternative,
but been put
off by poor
trackball
designs? Well,
we've found the
answer - the
Legend Ball.
This 3EO dots
per inch trackball
has been economi-
cally built, putting all
controls within easy reach of
your fingers and featuring a
smooth platform on which to
rest your palm.
While the mouse painter is
controlled by your thumb, item
selection can be made easily
without removing
your hand from the
device.
ONLY
EB4.99
GREAT
WAYS TO
UPGRADE
External drive
An external floppy drive which
plugs straight into the back of the
ST can benefit every type of user
- from games player to publisher.
Disk copying is faster and easier
once a drive has been fitted, and
there's no need for inconvenient
disk swapping when using power-
ful software.
The advantages of awning a
second drive - and what better
way is there of expanding your
system than choosing this
bargain-priced but
high quality device?
ONLY
£57.99
This high resolu-
tion replacement
for the chunky
and sluggish
Atari mouse
is perfect
for use
alongside all your
leisure and business
applications.
Switchable between ST and
Amiga use, the stylish Eklipse
model features micro-switch tech-
nology to give smooth operation,
easy use and
durability.
ONLY
£9.99
Memory
With more and more memory-
hungry programs being launched
for Atari computers, there's
never been a better time to
upgrade yours.
Extra memory will enable you to
play the most exciting simulation
games, use powerful graphics
drawing programs or even design
colourful pages with the latest
publishing software.
We've put together options for
all types of Atari enthusiast - and
with the STFM boards you'll be
able to extend the memory up to
4Mb of memory at a later date.
They're all at really competitive
prices, with a service available for
buyers who don't feel
confident to fit the
upgrade themselves.
SIEkSTE £8.99
STE to EMb £49.99
STE to 4Mb £99.99
SIEkSTFM EE9.99
STFM EMb £74.99
STFM 4Mb E1E9.99
offers
it/ely presents
saving ways tn stretch ynur ST's limits...
Midi Studio Master
This Midi sequencer
- which previously
said far £39 -
enables you to
turn ynur ST
intn a fully-
fledged music
controller.
With this software and compati-
ble synthesiser keyboard you can
write, store and playback stun-
ning compositions just like the
professionals.
Its features include IOO track
storage, 240 PPQ resolution, Midi
standard file compatible, real-
time mix-down via mouse, real-
time scrolling arrange
window and pipeline
module system.
TOS upgrade
Eive your ST the extra features and improve-
ments of the latest operating system but keep
compatibility with all your existing programs.
With TOS E.OE you'll be give gour computer a
brilliant new look, and have the ability to put
frequently used folders and files onto the desk-
top for easy access.
Extra icons are available far folders and hard
drives, keyboard shortcuts make control easier, the desk-
top's colour can be chanyed and EEM programs set to run
automatically.
Its support far high density floppy drives is just
another reason why this bargain upgrade is right for you,
A fitting service is available.
Fitting and return delivery
DIMLY
£59.99
DIMLY
£9.99
We realise that many ST owners would love
the power offered by extra memory or the
latest operating system but are put off by
the prospect of fiddling about inside the
computer.
This is why we've teamed up with a leading
Atari dealer who for a small extra charge will
be able to fit memory and T05 upgrades, and
even arrange for your machine to be sent
back.
If you choose this service please don't send
you computer just yet - once we've received
your order an Upgrade Centre representative
will arrange a convenient appointment time.
Internal Drive
Imagine the
advantages
of upgrading
a single-
sided floppy
disk drive to a
double-sided
version.
If you're still using the old style
single-sided drive, then you'll
have already found that most of
the latest software doesn't work
with ynur ST. Replace it with this
internal model and you'll be able
to run all programs, including
your existing collection, and have
dnuble the storage capacity on
every disk.
The drive is easy to fit but
because official Atari drives are
no longer available, some small
alterations will be ^^^
needed to the
ST's case.
OIMLY
£39.99
UPGRADES ORDER EDRM
Fill in this form and send it to Upgrade Centre, Europa House,
Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP
ATARI
O 512k STE upgrade £8.99
□ STE memory to 2Mb £49.99
O STE memory to 4Mb £99.99
G 512k STFM upgrade £29.99
d STFM 2Mb £74.99
L"D STFM 4Mb £129.99
C3 Internal floppy £39.99
□ External floppy £57.99
O Mouse £9.99
L~J Trackball £24.99
O Midi Studio Master £9.99
□ Joystick £2.99
□ TOS 2.06 (STE) £59.99
□ TOS 2.06 (STFM) £59.99
O DataView Hi-res mono monitor. .£104. 99
L - J Fitting and return delivery £19.99
Please add £1 per item for postage and packing within mainland UK - for overseas telephone the
Upgrade Centre on +44 772 203166. All products only available while stocks last
I wish to pay by...
□Cheque/postal order payable to Europress Enterprise Ltd
□ Credit Card No [
Name
Address
Expiry date
Please do not send your ST to the above address. The
Upgrade Centre will contact customers requesting the
fitting service with lull address and booking details.
.Postcode Daytime phone .
a Tick this box if you do not wish to receive
promotional material from other companies
Atari ST User August 1994
Replacement file selectors
like Selectric (shareware)
can be loaded as a matter
of course, without appre-
ciably affecting boot times
Desk File View Options
Viev
Filename: FROGEV .GIF
nnrr
Ba nane
K
ti\MES\SIF\*,«-
APPLE .GIF
BOAT .GIF
EARTH .GIF
_ .GIF
MOUKTEUR.GIF
PARROT .GIF
Jl£_
a
48 pates in
19456 14-81-89
46604 19-87-91
17978 22-84-87
KWiffliEBB
51072 82-09-93
52736 13-02-93
58368 22-04-87
Sm n-M-m
1 selected iten
Options
vDrive
an Hard Disk
rtu\.. MB W& Tfl
The upgrade to a hard disk is one
of the most difficult for the aver-
age ST owner to make, largely
because the benefits are so
well hidden.
You can see the advantages of the
usual add-ons such as a decent printer, a
monochrome or colour monitor, a
graphics card or a hand scanner in maga-
zine reviews and decide on that basis
what you want to spend your money on.
But you can't tell what a hard disk will
do without either trying one out or
watching one in action. Even then, it
takes many weeks of experimentation
before you start to see what a powerful
beast you've unleashed, as most of the
real benefits aren't immediately obvious.
The upgrade you decide to spend your
hard-won cash on will also depend on
your needs - a desktop publisher's
requirements won't match those of a
programmer, music lover or a computer
artist. However, a hard disk brings
universal speed and performance
improvements to almost every category
of user, with the possible exception of
games players. Even then, many of the
bigger, newer games will run quite
happily from a hard drive.
What's more, with the recent drop in
price, hard disks are looking better value
than ever before.
Eight years ago, when the ST market
was in its infancy, you might have had to
fork out upwards of £700 for a 10 or
20Mb hard disk. Just five years ago
Ladbroke's, one of the longest-standing
ST hard disk suppliers, was offering a
20Mb drive for £499.
Nowadays you won't be able to buy
A
Faster program loading also makes replacement
desktops like Compo's NeoDesk a realistic choice
J Atari ST User August 1 994
feature
10, 20 or even 30Mb drives because
manufacturers can make 100 Mb and
larger drives just as efficiently. System
Solutions have recently launched a 40Mb
model for just under £200 but as it is
getting harder and harder to source any
drive under 80Mb, you'd be advised to
get in quick.
Bigger drives are better value, of
course, so unless you're on a tight
budget, a I 00Mb drive or bigger is
recommended. Not only are bigger
drives even faster, they can store more
data at a lower cost per megabyte.
What will a hard disk do for me? The
obvious answer is the turn of speed it
will give you. It's something that's very
hard to quantify but on a bog standard
ST you can expect programs to load
somewhere between 5 and 10 times
faster and filing operations such as copy-
ing and deleting between 3 and 1 5 times
faster with a fast, medium sized ( 1 27Mb)
hard disk.
SPEED
However, that in itself isn't the whole
story and the figures depend on which
TOS you have, which driver software
you use, and the type of hard disk and
host adapter you are using.
The speed increase brings its own
benefits. Because booting is so fast -
with a minimal setup you can be up and
running in seconds - you can comfort-
ably add more and more AUTO folder
programs and desk accessories to the
boot partition without having to make a
cup of tea while they load.
With all the system enhancements
available these days, ranging from
Let 'em Fly and Winx to NVDI and
replacement file selectors, this means
your system becomes infinitely more
customisable without extending the boot
time.
Programs load in a matter of seconds
- even the big, clumsy ones like
Pagestream and Calligrapher - making
life an awful lot easier. If you suddenly
need to exit Timeworks and edit an
image, it no longer takes the rest of the
afternoon to get back to where you
Jargon busters
SCSI IDs - SCSI devices have unique addresses
or IDs, usually from to 7 on the ST. Most
hard disks use ID as lower numbers are
accessed quicker. The Atari laser printer uses
ID 5 or 7 and the clock in an ICD host
adapter such as the AdSCSI uses ID 6. Any
further SCSI devices be they CD-ROMs,
optical drives or another hard disk - need a
unique address, which is usually achieved by
altering a selector switch.
Fragmentation - When files are repeatedly
copied, moved and deleted on a disk or
partition, many of them will become frag-
mented, that is spread across non-contigu-
ous sectors on the disk. Fragmentation
slows read and write operations down
considerably and can result in lost files if not
"treated".
Optimisation - this is the process of re-
ordering files on a disk or partition so that
they are all placed in consecutive sectors,
usually ordered by directory, so that the
were. With small utilities loading near
enough instantaneously, you can start
installing applications so that they load
whenever a particular data file is double
clicked. For example, on my system,
clicking on a file with a *.TXT extension
loads EdHak, the text editor rather than
the Show, Print, Cancel dialogue.
This underused TOS feature makes
much more sense with a hard disk as the
installed application is always available.
On a floppy-based system the boot disk
or other disk with the application on
would always have to be in the drive.
Faster program loading also makes
replacement desktops a realistic choice,
especially as they usually have plenty of
options for hard disk owners such as
program icons on the desktop and
search features.
Other activities that many floppy drive
owners discard due to the time they
take up, become much more attractive.
Loading and saving data files is speeded
operating system doesn't lose track of them
and accesses them faster.
MFM and RLL - You'll also come across the
terms MFM and RLL. The former is the old
method of formatting the hard disk surfaces
but it has been superseded by the more effi-
cient RLL method. Virtually all new
drives use RLL technology. If you buy
an old second-hand drive which uses MFM
formatting, it simply means it will be
a little slower and a little less efficient than it
could be but it won't affect you in day-to-
day use.
LUN - Another parameter called LUN (for
Logical Unit Number) is used to differenti-
ate between different STS06/4I2 drives
hooked up to a single controller. As most
controllers can handle two drives, one is set
as LUN and the other is set as LUN I.
SCSI drives have their own individual
controllers and are always LUN 0. Again, it's
not something you need worry about.
up significantly too, so more frequent
saves are easy to handle. Some programs
like That's Write will even save your
data automatically every two minutes or
so - without you ever really noticing.
Printing is often faster from programs
like Timeworks that spool the output to
disk and you suddenly find yourself using
the GEM clipboard more as it no longer
takes any time at all to save to disk.
Space, naturally enough, is the other
big benefit of a hard disk. Even a small
40Mb drive will hold the equivalent of
more than 50 floppy disks' worth of
data, allowing you to install most of your
existing software to where it is easily
accessible.
If you have Tos 2.0x or a replacement
like NeoDesk you can install all your
frequently used programs on the desk-
top as icons. As soon as your ST boots
and the desktop appears, you can click
on and load your favourite program
Taking care of your drive
Diamond Edge, currently at version 1. 10, is a comprehensive disk
care utility that lets you examine your disk drives, optimise hard disk
partitions and recover lost data.
Available from HiSoft for £29.95, Edge is a GEM-based program
with scores of options. It will examine floppy or hard disk partitions
and provide a detailed report on the number of sectors, clusters and
tracks plus information on FATs and root directories and a graphic
representation of the amount of space used. Edge will then give you a
fragmentation map, letting you see just how badly your files are
distributed around the disk.
Two optimisation methods are available. Full optimisation re-orders
all files on your hard disk by directory while compress simply moves
all the files together to one end of the partition. The end result of a
full optimisation should be a much faster hard disk as the heads don't
have to work so hard to get at your data.
Edge can do all sorts of other things too, like altering, zeroing and
wiping partitions, mapping bad sectors, and archiving partition data to
allow recovery from hard disk crashes. The manual is very compre-
hensive and contains a gold mine of useful information on hard and
floppy drives.
A File Medic Optinize Undelete Archive Utility Help
Disk Hap for Drive C =
Provides information about your disk fragmentation level
Hunber of Folders
Nimber of Files!
Fragnented Files:
flvg ttFrags/Fragfile
Avg 8Frags/188K FFs
82
8
1.668
6.857
Sim i'3 frijaeMstim distribution
l»-
y. Of 75
Files 59
aict SK'uk'NkssKiNKtiMK
G^ fms <= i File Size
[- K flgj Fnj <=J jj 3< dv S Fris W
□HftoSFNjM []4<fivsF[.i5
[~J:Fr« [j = Frsj [JsUW One Blo:k = 1,8 Cluster!
Oiwni E c ;; ■■,!?
Disk Info
All Info "ft;
Pres s tea or B utton T o selec t H:\vn D rive
lt U2 n cum m m m
m e m m m m m e uelexj deh
Diamond Edge - worth its weight in carats when it comes
to restoring lost data and looking after your drive.
Atari ST User August 1 994
Working on the desktop
Life with a hard disk is a whole lot easier. Instead of just one or two icons on the desktop, you get
as many as you have partitions, up to a maximum of 16. More can be made available but the desk-
top starts looking pretty crowded, so sticking to around three or four hard drive partitions is
often more convenient.
Once you've installed your hard disk, you can add new icons to your desktop quite simply
(though Install Devices does it automatically on TOS 2. Ox and above). Double clicking on the rele-
vant icon then opens another drive window into which you can copy your programs and data.
TOS 2. Ox offers a range of different drive icons so you can differentiate floppies and hard disk
partitions at a glance and it also lets you place program icons on the desktop for easy access. TOS
1.4 or above is recommended for use with a hard disk as TOS 1.2 and earlier versions are
extremely slow at disk operations.
Desk File Oieu t ' FHHJEI
INSTALL DESKTOP ICON
Icon Nan&: _1
Icon Identifier: N:
Icon Libel: HARD DISK
Icon Tape:
Trash can Printer
Icon Shape:
Adding an icon
for a newly
installed hard
disk
I | I I Cancel I
Desk File Oiev j
Install Icon TO
Install Application LAI
Install Devices
Renpve Desktop icon
Set Preferences
K-AlMliNil'JJJJ-JJJiMilJ
Set Desktop Background
Read Inf File
Save Desktop
Print Screen
[01
Cache
TOS 2.06 offers
plenty of
options for
hard disk users
i:MHA5ES\»,»=
6 bytes used in 12 itews.
:•: degas
8 FUK
:>: 6iF
:•: m
:•: jpee
:•: pcd
:•: SPEC
:■: tsa
STIC
li TIF
:•; tinv
:•: uectop,
without hunting through disk boxes. You
can banish thoughts like "I know it's the
dark blue one with the torn red label but
which disk box did I put it in?" for ever!
Of course, you can install programs on
the desktop on a floppy-based system
but you would always have to ensure
that the right disk was in the drive when
you double clicked on it. Better still,
program launchers like Hotwire can
provide access to every single program
on the drive from a single easy-to-use
menu.
POSSIBILITIES
Hard disk space is vital for many appli-
cations. Today's most exciting programs
like DA's Vector, DA's Picture,
AtariWorks and SpeedoGDOS all
require a hard disk and the list is grow-
ing all the time. Provided you have the
RAM, a hard disk opens up all kinds of
possibilities in DTP where you can have
many more fonts and clip art ready to
hand in programs like Timeworks,
Pagestream and Calamus.
For music lovers, a hard disk means
you can store and edit large samples and
sound tracks while for those into image
processing or video digitising, the same
applies. It doesn't take a large colour
image to outgrow a floppy and once
you've created it, you're stuck if you
can't save it! Databases, archived files,
raytracing programs and PhotoCD all
require space too and the more the
merrier.
Hard disks are rigid platters made of
specially coated metal that rotate over
Hard disk drivers
AHDI Version 6.x of the driver, known
simply as AHDI, is the latest Falcon-
compatible version but version 5.x is
recommended for ST owners. The
accompanying utilities include a very
basic formatting and partitioning utility
which also allows zeroing of partitions
and the marking of bad sectors and
another which installs the driver on the
hard disk itself.
AHDI is relatively slow and requires some third party caching soft-
ware (or Atari's own CACHEXXX.PRG) to get the most from it.
However it offers maximum compatibility with every application
you're likely to come across.
ri I^i;h ! H :w>-;n: I g
Atari's Hard Disk Interface
software is basic but free
:■■: ■ Witt -,:•-; 1_
- PjtlM llilCll IKtK ll» SI! 1- MW a
KjltfgbNr „:fl
KMS'.'si.ri. m f
•*** ■' i:^i 'tu«fi nit-tarn :■ - ■;«: '•
The ICD Pro utilities work with any
host adapters, including The Link and
Translator, and with any SCSI hard disk.
The Pro package offers a full version of
Cleanup, a defragmenting utility, and a
SCSI direct command utility on top of
the usual drivers, formatters and parti-
tioning software. The driver is a useful
one too, with configurable read and write
caching, write verify and several other options.
The ICD drivers have a wide following and there's no doubt they
speed up your system and provide a good array of tools for delving
into your system more deeply. With Cleanup you can also defragment
your drive on a regular basis to safeguard data.
Configuring the hard disk
driver with ICD's utilities
ELJ jjj ^oj rag
Bill
IIII 1
IZII
* - - 1 »™
HD Driver is new from Germany. On
sale with System Solutions it costs £20 or
£ I if bought with a hard drive and
includes a readable manual aimed at first
time hard drive users. It is very simple to
set up but there are dozens of useful
configuration options including sector
size options for removable drives, write
protected partitions, booting from other
than drive C, and the ability to allocate
extra FAT and data buffers to speed up disk access.
HD Driver still has a few bugs to be ironed out and I had problems
with the cache and one of the configuration accessories. However it is
by far the fastest hard disk driver, fully compatible with the AHDI
standard, and is well worth investigating. The manual and high level
of support from System Solutions makes it a must for the
beginner too.
Atari's Hard Disk Interface
software is basic but free
Boot managers are special programs
designed to get you up and running with
your chosen combination of desk acces-
sories and AUTO folder programs as
quickly as possible.
They are the first programs to load
from your AUTO folder and they then
control the remainder plus any desk
accessories. Normally, if you need to
reboot without an accessory installed,
either for compatibility or to free up memory, you need
to disable it by renaming the .ACC extender to something
like ACX so that it is ignored by the operating system when it next
starts up.
Boot managers take all the fuss out of it, by doing it automatically
with simple key presses or mouse clicks.
If there's one type of program that can be said to use a hard disk to
if i
*
±
T
\ \
i
5« i
Wit:
'TCKXU
'OMT '
T
#1 '
.'EH* 1
X
5oot3 lets y c
quickly and
>u boot
efficien
up
tly
It Atari ST User August 1 994
feature
fixed heads. The delicate heads ride on a
small cushion of air and never actually
contact the platter itself. If they do, it
usually results in loss of data or perma-
nent damage to the heads themselves.
The ST is linked to the hard disk
through the DMA port and communi-
cates through a protocol called Atari
Computer Systems Interface. Atari's
own drives, the Atari Megafiles which
are now discontinued, plug straight
into the DMA port. The ACSI
commands sent by the ST to access the
data are translated by a device called
a host adapter into signals the
drive's ST506/4I2 controller can under-
stand.
ST506/4 1 2 is a set of protocols devel-
oped by Seagate which is all but obsolete
and the market is now dominated by IDE
drives (as used on the PC and Falcon)
and SCSI drives (as used by Apple Macs,
STs and others).
Atari's ACSI was based on the Small
Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) that
later became an industry standard and is
used on many other platforms such as
Apple Macs and some PCs. However, as
a result of some unfortunate but signifi-
cant differences, an ACSI to SCSI
converter (known as a host adapter) is
required before the Atari can communi-
cate with a standard SCSI drive. This
extra hardware tends to push up the
price.
If you were to wander out and buy a
bare SCSI drive, you'd still need
to source a host adapter. The best
ones are the external adapters like ICD's
The Link and System Solutions'
Translator.
its full advantage, it has to be the program launcher. Your programs
will invariably end up spread all over your hard disk and accessing the
more frequently used utilities can be a pain, especially if you have to
navigate through a lot of folders.
A program launcher simply presents you with one or more menu
screens from which you select the program you want to use.
You have to spend some time setting it up, but the result is that you
can usually load any program in your entire collection (as long as it's
on your hard disk) within about 15 seconds of switching on your
machine.
Backup utilities. Backing up a hard disk
is essential, particularly if you value your
data. Although you may well have kept
your master disks, CoverDisks and PD
disks, your data files such as word proces-
sor documents, DTP files and images will
all need to be carefully looked after.
Although hard disks are relatively reli-
able bits of equipment in physical terms,
they can often become corrupted in
everyday use.
This inherent unreliability - due to the way files are written,
deleted and then written over - means that your first move
when you get a hard disk should be to investigate the back-up
software.
Once you've done a full backup, keeping up to date is easy if you
choose a program with support for incremental backups.
This means you only back up the files that have changed
since the last time you carried out the procedure. If you really want
the best in backup utilities, see this month's review of
Diamond Back 3.
Turtle is a freeware utility
for backing up hard drives
Adding a hard disk
Adding a hard disk is quick and easy, especially with System
Solutions' HD Driver software which provides an easy to follow
manual aimed at first time hard disk users. Most drives come
ready formatted so you can plug in and play but let's assume you
want to do it yourself.
With the drive plugged into the ST's DMA port (helpfully
marked "hard disk"), you can switch it on and wait for it to get up
to operating speed. Next, you insert the floppy disk containing the
HD Driver software in drive A and switch on the ST. The driver
program itself, HDDRIVER.PRG. is in the disk's AUTO folder so
you'll see a brief message telling you that the drive is installed.
Next you run HARDPART.APP, to partition the drive (Figure
I ). The first screen shows you which devices you can partition - if
you only have one drive attached, only one will be available
(Figure 2). The second screen allows you to decide how many and
what size partitions you want.
One big partition isn't a good idea from a data management
point of view and access is also slower. If you need a big partition,
say for sampling or large files, select at least a small boot partition
and use the rest as the data partition (Figure 3).
The next step is a reboot so that TOS gets the information
about the new partitions, followed by the HARDBOOT.APP
program which installs the driver onto the hard disk (Figure 4).
You can also run HDDRCONF.APP which lets you configure the
driver fully for your particular setup (Figure 5).
Next time you reboot, you'll notice how much quicker the
procedure is - after a quick peek at your floppy, the hard disk will
take over. All that remains is to install all your accessories and
AUTO folder programs on the hard disk, followed by the rest of
your software.
Figure I
Figure 5
Atari ST User August 1 994
Kobold really
comes into its
own under multi-
tasking operating
systems such as
MultiTOS. No
need to waste
a desk accessory
slot, and blank
disk formatting
or incremental
backups can
be performed
as background
tasks while you
are occupied
with your
business
correspondence
S| - STeno: OPTDIIZE.KIJ ■
:■:
•*, File Edit Options STalker
s
* Optinize Partition
1 Copies a chosen partition to a temporary folder on another arbitrary
1 partition and then back again (after erasing the original), This results
1 in an optinal sequence of files to inprove perfomance on that drive.
! Sone folders are always copied in identical order (here: euro, CPX, PXCS,
1 DESKTOP),
10:
SELECT.DRIvE "Choose Partition to be 0ptinized",50
SELECT-DRIVE 1 "Choose Partition for Temporary Data", SB
BftRKCH.OK-DRIUE 1X1:29) 1 If *8=M then error mssage because
1 you cannot optinize on the sane drive,
EOTO 10
20:
UK
ALERT "!»ou cannot use the sane partition for the tenpprary data!"
EOTO IB
H
«ll ! 41*
i
An example of
a job file, as
supplied with
Kobold. The
Basic-like
programming
language takes
a bit of learning
but for the lazy
there is always
the job
Recording
function —
trouble is you
have to actually
do the job in
the first place
to have it
recorded
Speed
Giinter Minnerup finds that there's
more to Kobold than meets the eye
T
ime and speed are certainly very
relative concepts. My first ST was
running at 8MHz, had only 520k
memory and a single-sided floppy
drive, yet I thought it was the bee's knees
for desk top publishing and certainly a
speed wizard when compared to its prede-
cessor on my desk, a humble CP/M
machine then sold by the present chairman
of a North London football club.
These days, I twiddle my thumbs impa-
tiently while my 32MHz TT with its 6Mb
FastRAM and 19ms access hard disk
redraws a complex vector graphics screen.
The more speed you have, the more you
want, and computer manufacturers must
feel like the tortoise in his race with the
hare when trying to meet the ever growing
demands of the market for extra power
and zip.
Not all of us, however, can afford to
"trade in" our existing machines for the
latest and fastest model every 12 months
or so. Trying to make the most of what we
have got, we turn to hardware accelera-
tors, operating system upgrades and a
whole host of little utilities to squeeze
every ounce of performance out of the
current setup.
The public domain and shareware scene
is a particularly rich picking ground for such
system tweaks; the only trouble is that
many of the ingenious hacks available there
for little or nothing have a tendency to be
incompatible with each other, or with some
of your favourite applications.
Take, for example, early versions of
Quick ST, an impressive-looking software
screen accelerator. Unfortunately it tended
to mess up the display on some applications
and was generally extremely choosy about
the company it would get on with, so it was
eventually replaced on most people's
systems by the commercial and much more
compatible - as well as more effective -
NVDI.
In the end, commercial solutions tend to
be safer in most cases, if only because flaki-
II Atari ST User August 1 994
reading
Copy Paraneters
=l:
Sources
Deselect/Disable
|Q|
Archive Bit
File Date
Verify
IS! GEMDOS Dr
As in Sourcefile
P\
fis in Sourcefile
M
On (just Kobold)
|Q|
ivesi Check capacity
Max, Blocksize! 64__ KB for A: and B:
512_ KB for C: to Z:
SK | Cancel |
OEMS Me
nnnrniiiifininnii
nsaEnnEHjaaHS]
OK
Cancel
The Copy Parameters dialog allows you to fine
tune operations. The maximum block size can be
set differently for floppy and hard disks, for
example, to optimise speeds for each medium
ness is not very conducive to the long term
profitability of a product.
Graphic output is only one area where
every ST, Falcon and TT can benefit from
specially optimised routines such as those
GEMDOS mode is specifically for
CD-ROM drives and other media
which can only be accessed by
special software drivers
offered by NVDI. Another one is file
handling. Early STs were a pain to use with
hard disks because TOS versions before
1.04 were written with floppies in mind,
but even TOS 1 .04 and higher are far from
Faster than the eye
The basic principle behind Kobold is quite simple: rather than handle each file separately, it will opti-
mise transfer speeds by first reading all the files to be copied into its own internal file buffer and then
writing the lot with a single call to the operating system.
The more files to be copied, the greater the speed gain of course, and the less fragmented the target
disk or partition, the better. There are other tricks employed by Kobold so that file operations are
always faster than if carried out from the Desktop, but the most impressive timings are obtained when
large chunks of one hard disk partition are copied or moved to another relatively "clean" one.
Using Kobold to copy just over eight megabytes (consisting of 1 1 folders and 1 84 files) from D to E,
for example, took just 26 seconds on my TT as against I minute 16 seconds with GEMDOS. Intelligent
directory handling will make file copies within a single partition or floppy disk all but instantaneous
when the data doesn't actually have to be shifted physically — blink and you'll literally miss it!
REVIEW
6 Kobold really
transforms
your daily
computing life A
hyper-efficient when it comes to the
routine disk management chores.
The built-in GEMDOS routines are reli-
able enough, but will not drive modern
hardware to its performance limits. For
some time now, a variety of PD fast format-
ters and disk copying utilities have offered
partial answers to the problem, but once
again incompatibility problems and uncer-
tainties over long-term support have
ensured that none of them have really
established themselves.
Here too a commercial solution
promises to do for file handling what NVDI
did for screen output — and like NVDI, it
is a German import distributed in this
country by System Solutions.
Installed as a Desktop accessory, or run
as an application under multitasking, Kobold
is available at any time and offers all the
standard file management functions —
format, copy, move, delete and so on, even
as background tasks under MultiTOS or
Mag!X.
COST EFFECTIVE
So far, so good, I hear you say, but fifty
quid for a disk copying utility still seems a
bit steep, however fast it is. After all, it is
only a few seconds out of your life each
day, and you would have to do an awful lot
of disk copying to make Kobold cost effec-
tive through file copying alone.
The most time-consuming and tedious
aspect of many routine housekeeping tasks
is not the speed of the actual copying or
deleting operations themselves, but the
clicking through several directory levels,
opening and closing of windows, directory
updating and selecting and deselecting.
With today's huge hard drives, multiple
partitions and deeply-nested folder struc-
tures, even finding a particular file can be
difficult enough.
Take the relatively simple example of
releasing extra storage space by deleting
redundant back-up files and eliminating
duplicates: most of us only bother to do
this when we are in truly dire straits,
desperately needing a few kilobytes to save
that file we have just created. With Kobold
though, it is easy to automate this proce-
dure so that it can be performed regularly
once a day or every week by calling up —
with a function key, if you like — an appro-
priate XBJ (Koboldjob) file.
These KBJ files can be created with any
ASCII text editor using the built-in
command language, or alternatively by
invoking the macro record mode: once the
task in question has been performed
"manually", it is saved to disk as a KBJ file.
Very neat!
The manual, it should be added, is of
great help in making the most of Kobold -
not the poorly translated photocopied
sheets you get with so many German
imports, but a properly printed and bound
70 pages in perfect English.
To be quite frank, I probably would not
have bothered with Kobold if it had not
been given to me for reviewing. Fifty quid
for a file copying utility seemed a bit exces-
sive!
Speed, however, is addictive, and after
only a few days of intensive use I decided
that I couldn't possibly go back to the built-
in Desktop routines. The Job files took a
bit longer to get me hooked, since the
initial tendency is to do everything in the
same old ways learned under GEMDOS —
old habits die hard. But once you discover
the "Record Job" function and start defin-
ing a few macros, Kobold really transforms
your daily computing life.
On the other hand however, some of
the more complex tasks which Kobold can
be programmed to perform automatically
can be accomplished even more effectively
using dedicated utilities.
Take hard disk backup, for example:
Kobold can be instructed to carry out
"incremental" backups at the end of each
working session, copying only new or
updated files to floppy, but far more
sophisticated back-up features are offered
by a dedicated program such as Diamond
Back, at speeds that come close to
Kobold's.
Copying 8Mb from one partition to
another, which took Kobold 26 seconds as
against 76 seconds under GEMDOS, will
take a pretty nifty 44 seconds using
Diamond Back, and the latter also offers
the option of compressed, space-saving
archives.
For a small, floppy-only computer used
mainly for word processing and games,
Kobold would almost certainly be overkill.
But for owners of large hard drives used in
data-intensive operations such as graphics
editing, DTP and music, it will soon pay for
itself in saved time, nerves and energy.
NVDI owners already know the feeling:
once you are used to the extra perfor-
mance, doing without it is like a return to
the stone age. Finally, for those making
extensive use of multitasking, and especially
with alternative desktops such as EASE or
GEMINI which can be interfaced directly
with Kobold, this file copying speed demon
capable of sitting (and working) in the back-
ground is an absolute "must have".
BOTTOM LINE
FEATURES
Very powerful and versatile,
especially with the job
macros
EASE OF USE
Quickly learnt and well
documented
VALUE FOR MONEY
Not cheap but classy and
worthwhile for larger
hard drives
B2S3EB3SS
6ood ^
Average
Bad
Appalling
Excellen^^
average *
Bad
Appalling
Excellent
EEBHSMH
Bad ~
Appalling
Product: Kobold Version S.5
Supplier: System Solutions,
Windsor Business Centre,
Vansittart Road,
Windsor SL4 1SE
Telephone: 0753 832212
Price: £59.95
Configuration: Any STE/Falcon/TT with a
minimum of ST Medium
screen resolution
Source Destination Settings
I \KOB0LD_2.5\
ICOKS
JOBS
TOOLS
mum txt
CORRECT PR6
K0B0U.2 PRG
TRELCHK PRO
< DIR >
< DIR >
< DIR >
4E81
31034
150355
31187
Kobold's user interface is reminiscent of
ST-Z1P with a source and a destination
directory side by side so you always
know what is going where. Mac-like pull-
down menus and pop-ups make working
with Kobold a pleasurable ergonomic
experience
'41--
- : KOMO Filese
.ector ■-"
fpicnianiEU
jBrjTjsEffij
• Extension
+
TBS HP' TKT^ - 8 ' '
File Kane!
1 1 Hit! |
Since a SI.
15. 11)1 ! Hsdifu... 1
1
Difference
t
lite! Different ICI
or Site 1 Different ;l
! Archive ;
found Itens
Piths
Set KH
1 1 1
! Select Inclusively
fo| 1 "tula 1
Don't Select
101 I Esncel |
Need to copy all C source files created
since yesterday to an archive partition,
stamping them with today's date? No
problem with Kobold's file selector
dialog
Installed as an accessory, Kobold is
available from any GEM application to
outperform the equivalent GEMDOS
functions offered by most programs
The "dog ears" on the top right corner
of each dialog indicate that these are
flying dialogs that can be moved about
on the screen - it is also possible to
have dialogs in windows
Atari ST User August 1 994
HUGE
selection from
the finest range
of software and
hardware for
TOS computers
|AtariSTFM ECall
Configured to your needs
Atari MegaSTe and TT ECall |
Occasionally available
BJ10e
Driver fa Write ON
BlitterChip ECall I
For most STFMs and Mega ST
C-Font £3.99 |
Calamus font converter for
WOandTW
COMPOCDROM ECall
Demos of Commerciai
German software
COMPO CD-ROM ROM ECall
Coming soon to connect a
Mitsumi CD-ROM to any ST
Componium ECall
New music software
Dictionary Disks £34.99
German, French, Spanish...
for Thafs Write
Digital Box ECall
Digital interlace fa MUSiCOM
andTrakCom
Epson Stytusfi70fonts £14.99
WOandTW fonts disk
Epson Internal fonts £12.99 |
Epson LQ850 and Canon
BJIOex support
Fontkft ECall
The bitmap font editor
Hard disks
Most use MiniS system
HP DeskJet 500 £1499
WO and TW printer driver
Imagecopy 2 E19.99 I
Screen grabber, converta and [
colour printing
Internal Disk Drive £19.99 |
Refurbished at special price!
Memory Upgrades ECall |
AS kinds of memory stocked
MUSiCOM 1 £49.00 |
Classic direcHo-dek recording
MUSiCOM 1 to 2 upgrade £29.99 I
NeoDesk2to3upgrade £939
NeoDesk3to4upgrade £29.99
Portfolio £49.00 |
Atari's classic palmtop
Portfolio Modem £7939 I
Portfolio Chess £1939
Portfolio 256K card £7939
Portfolio Linkscard £1939
Repairs from £20.00
Ricoh Laser Toner £34.99 |
Limited stock
Spares -Atari full range ECall I
SPEEDO font packs ECall |
New range of affordable
SPEEDO fonts
SPEEDOGDOS Upgrade
Upgrade to the latest
SPEEDOGDOS- caning
soon
ST Mono Monitors from £129 I
Th3fsWrite1.5to2upgrade £29.99
Thafs Write 2 to 3 upgrade ECall
Write ON to That's Writs 1i £2499
XACC Specification Free |
Send dfek and sae to COMPO
aonCIX
Zoom
Colour ICON edtor
Nwwnsense money |
back guarantee.
If you are not
completely satisfied
with anything you
buy from us, return
it within 30 days for
a full refund
SpeedoGDOS
New Release!
Features include:
Type 1 font support
TrueType font support
Colour enhanced
That's Write 3
.': -: '.: ■:■ : ,
':--.•,>.',-/"-!; ■:.'.■■'. powerful ST
word processor produced.
PostScript printing to non-PostScript
printers. Grest forpreviewng PagestTeam
documents before typesetting.
TrakCom
The new standard
tracker for the Falcon.
ScreenEye
Real-time video digitis-
er and screen grabber
for Falcon.
SPEEDOGDOS
New version with enhanced
colour output. Type 1 and Tn
Type font support available soon.
Write ON
Classic word
acessor for the
novice/hobby user.
Features include cut and
Studio Photo
24-bit Photo retouching
all STs and Falcons
Ultimate Virus Killer
Essential for any ST
— r. New version out
Falcon Speed
286 emulator for Falcon including
colour Windows driver.
£49
£79
Autoswitch Overscan
1 rjisp lay for
anySTFMorMegaST.
Essential (or DTP and Mu=
£49
NVDI 1
1
2.5
L £59
NVDI
Blindirtgly fast software accelerator
for all TOS computers. Essential
for all STs, TTs and Falcons.
Screenblaster
Now with new v2 soft-
ware - fully configurable
and comes with NVDI.
Geneva
$
Geneva
Multi-tasking for all STs. Includes
full support for AES 4.0- all STs
get Falcon-like interface features.
£59
NeoDesk 4.0
New Release!
Features include:
Multitasking support
Grouped objects
.
Much, much more
' v ■ r» CwhuIih,
TOS 2.06 ROMs
Replacement ROMs f
STe computers only.
Maths Co-
processor
68882-25 co-
processor for the
"alcon. Essential
or Ray Tracirr
, morphing...
NeoDesk\
NeoDesk 4
Due n at He aid d July. Lib at net fea-
tures.nduongimifrBstoig support makes
lis Itenei standard for ST d""
NeoDesk CLI
Command line interface
NeoDesk 3
Thecl
STolker'3
The best selling hardware emulator for the ST.
E3
MW HW XOFTWAMt
STalker
PoKfftfMMefttfccim^^
soft«arspadr£d«nthfeaturesindurSng
bdCkyotixtZ-Hoden fie transfers.
on\ cciorl
>^
Interface
T resource file editor - new version 2.
3-D effects. English software but with
German manual.
2.3
"ATAKF
S20ST-
_ on vector
Easy to use. fast autotrace pro-
that uses maths co-processor.
K.CBOCT)
V
*
COMPO Presents
MUSiC0M2
now available!
ThebrandnewMUSiC0M2ishere
Digital Audio for the Falcon that '
even the non music-minded can
use. Version 2 costs £79 and
upgrades are, of course, available
^MUSiCOMl. Registered uTre
should already have their upgrade
information by mail; if not call
COMPO.
HUNDREDS OF PRODUCTS
FOR THE ST, TT AND FALCON
FOR EVERYTHING TOS, COMPO SOFTWARE HAS
OUTLETS IN GERMANY, HOLLAND, FRANCE,
USA AND UK. A TOTAL SERVICE INCLUDING
HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, FITTING & REPAIRS.
Buy from COMPO Software and reap the rewards!
* Widest range of ST Hardware and Software listed
in our free catalogue
* FREE technical support when you want it - open
3pm to 8pm every weekday
+ Convenient ordering - 9:30 am to 7pm Monday
to Friday, 10am to 5pm Saturday, or by 24 hour
answering machine outside these hours. 24 hour
fax orderline
* Dedicated COMPO conference on the CIX
bulletin board for modem owners
* Showroom opening shortly dedicated to hard-
ware and software for TOS computers
* Stable and secure company. Over seven years
in the Atari market (four years in the UK) with
worldwide sales and marketing
* 48 hour despatch for items in stock - check
availability before ordering by post if you need
this guarantee
* Free delivery anywhere in the UK. Add £5 for
guaranteed next day delivery in the UK, £51 for carriage
to mainland Europe and £101 for Rest of World
* Easy payment accepted ^g* j«f, mm
* Additional charges may mm ^S __
apply for bulky items such as computers and monitors - check when ordering these items
Just pick up the phone and you're on your way to talking to the Atari experts. Because
all we sell is Atari hardware and software we like to think we know a bit about what
we are talking about. We're happy to take time to understand what you want to
achieve, and then recommend a solution. Choose from our wide range and have it
delivered to your door in just a few days.
As well as our own product range COMPO Software
is also exclusive UK agents for:
Gribnif, Atari UK (for TOS upgrades), Overscan
We also sell products from many other
companies including:
Atari (complete product range), CGS, Titan
Designs, System Solutions, Marpet Developments
Sales and Enquiries UK: 04873 582
Sales and Enquiries USA: 41 5 355 0862
24 Hour Fax UK: 04873 581
24 Hour Fax USA: 41 5 355 0869
Technical Support UK: 04873 521
COMPO Software Ltd, Unit 3 Green Farm,
Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon PE17 2PF
All prices include VAT and Carriage. All trademarks and Registered trademarks acknowledged. All prices
subject to change - confirm prices when ordering. Products offered subject to availability.
SEND FOR YOUR FREE COPY OF THE COMPO SOFTWARE CATALOGUE.
i 1
Please rush me my FREE copy of the COMPO Software Catalogue.
Name Company
Address
Postcode.
Telephone Fax
Mail to COMPO Software Ltd, Unit 3 Green Farm, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon PE17 2PF.
Laying down
About box pops up every
time the program runs
As any Falcon owner knows, our
bird of prey comes with very
powerful sound processing hard-
ware as standard. All you need do
is connect a pair of speakers and a micro-
phone and off you go.
Oh yeah, you need software too. But
what do you do after you've recorded the
sound? Well, you play it back. But the
novelty of this soon wears out too...
Enter TrakCom, the latest product from
Compo. This lets you combine sampled
sounds into a ten-track sequencer. But
TrakCom is much more than a sequencer.
It also lets you edit samples and
combine them into songs. So the best way
to describe TrakCom is to say that it's an
integrated software synthesizer with a
built-in sequencer.
The first thing to do is try out some of the
demo songs. Although impressive at show-
ing off TrakCom's features, there is no
accounting for taste and yours truly, to put
it very mildly, don't care much for techno...
So, time to get those creative juices flow-
ing and make us some real music.
Samples - or instruments as the
TrakCom manual calls them - must be
imported from a separate hard disk
recording program such as MusiCom. Such
a sampler is also useful to add effects and
generally polish up the sound before
importing it, although TrakCom itself has
some interesting editing features.
TrakCom can import both AVR and
DVS samples. These can be in stereo, but
TrakCom will combine them into mono
before importing. This is because each
sample is really considered an instrument
destined for one track and stereo panning
comes later.
If you insist on stereo you can do it but
it needs more work - the stereo sounds
must be sampled twice, once for each side,
and then loaded into two separate tracks.
Finally, TrakCom can read mono. SND
files also known as .AU files common in
the Unix world.
Importing samples involves double-click-
ing on an empty slot in the sample list
window and selecting a file from the file
selector. This will also assign a number to
each instrument which is automatically
Atari ST User August 1 994
Wi.SM •- FAIMEM
mn : :
: :
Smli:
H-
P)H Ifll" I
Pin link I
,11k pyrsorl
Main song editing
window
used during songwriting.
Double-clicking on the imported sample
invokes the sample editor. Samples can be
reversed, that is to say played backwards.
They can also be made louder or quieter.
An interesting feature is the ability to
attenuate or amplify only a portion of a
sample for seamless joining and looping.
The whole sound graph can be moved "up"
and "down" or even "centred". This will
eliminate occasional clicking sounds at the
sample start or end. Samples can also be
trimmed at both ends.
A couple of sliders are used to "tune"
the sample. This is the basic pitch before
transposition. Using signal processing, any
sound can be turned into several octaves by
the process of transposition. To help with
testing there is also a test tone and the
keyboard has been overlayed with a piano
layout. Pressing "q", for example, will
produce a C.
COMPOSING
Having created and tuned all of the
instruments, the time has come to start
composing. The first thing to do is set the
song parameters. Lines pro Pattern is the
number of displayed lines per sampled
pattern. It's used for orientation, so mean-
ingful values such as 1 6, 32 or 64 for a quar-
ter note should be used.
Lines pro Shift indicates the number of
lines the song display will jump when shifted
cursor keys are pressed. The maximum
value is the length of a pattern. Lines pro
Jonstudto in dcr 'Box
QQ$&a Software
i5*[*jaa_
M
iptt *»
Close '»
List Version A H
Sow
SlV! H. .
[lit
Copy
Insert
Enptg
Hark si:
lloit Iteration,,
Editor »!
Saw!! List \
■lU... *!
Pirmeter,,, M
Smiojs... »f
Foots,,, A F
Foot Song Editor,,.
Foot Single List,.,
5m Farosetera
,'C'Jrl
Second determines the playback speed.
However, changing this in the middle of a
composition will most likely not work as
the actual sample playback speed does not
change and the samples may get out of
sync.
There are also a number of global
options which can be set: a selection of
fonts for buttons and alert boxes and the
sample list font can be altered.
Playback speed ranges from 8 to 49
kHz. Normally this ought to be set as high
as possible but some songs with a high
number of tracks may require a lower
frequency in order for the DSP to cope.
TrakCom uses the DSP (digital sound
processor) in the Falcon to process the
sound. Although this processor is very fast
it has its limitations due to large amounts
of data contained in samples. The size of a
sample is directly proportional to its reso-
lution and sampling rate. For example, the
DSP can handle up to six tracks of 16-bit
samples at the highest Falcon rate of 49
kHz. So reducing the rate to 25 kHz will
enable the DSP to process and transpose
up to eight tracks in real time.
The songs are created in the song
editor window. It helps to have this
8
18
12
Standard Setting
Playback Freq,
16
kHz
b
29
25
33
44,1
48
49 ->
C«
ncel |
OK |
A list of all available menu functions
Frequencies available for replaying
software
Tralcs
Don Maple samples TrakCom from Compo,
an Integrated software
synthesizer with a built-in
sequencer'
Song Parameters
HH2L.
Heavy netal riff »2
Yeah, bash the netal,,.
For (real!) assenbler programmers only!
Save for [UHlLines Tracks! Q
M „ „,„ „ c . Lines pep Pattern: f32j
±J _l - ±J Lilies per Shift ; [8-J
_| Conplete Sanple Path
Cancel | Okay |
Song parameters
window as large as possible so BlowUp or
Screenblaster are highly recommended to
increase desktop resolution. Initially all
tracks will be empty which is indicated by
dashes. Individual tracks can be turned on
and off by simply clicking on the track
number. The current position is marked
by an inverse "cursor" bar.
To enter a note, a sample must first be
selected from the sample window. Then,
in the song editor window, the cursor is
moved to the desired bar using cursor
keys and the note is "played" from the
keyboard. That's all there is to it
PROGRESS
As the note is entered it is also
sounded, so corrections are easily made
and you can peck around the keyboard
until the correct note is found. To check
the progress, the song can be played from
the beginning, from cursor position or you
can play a single block. Notes entered in
error can be erased with the space bar.
There is also a memory marker to easily
navigate through a larger song. You can
jump straight to the marker or to the last
played position.
Whipping out the guitar sample, we can
now try some serious brain-damaging HM
riffs - none of that sissy techno stuff
here... And it works amazingly well! HM
fans are usually hackers and TrakCom
provides for them too. All song files with
■ 1
Sanples
-1 -
8 SILENCE
81 RHVTHM
243k
Fl
82 HIP
36k
F2
83 DA
48k
F3
84 RUN
49k
F4
85 NER
68k
F5
86 VOH
58k
F6
F7
8? DEM
78k
88 HAUS
86k
F8
89 ORIGINAL
95k
F9
18 0RIGINA2
181k
F18
11 0RIGINA3
94k
OF1
12 MEGABEIT
123k
OF 2
13 2SNAP
15k
OF 3
14 BASS
38k
OF 4
15 -
16 HAKAB
43k
OF 6
17 -
19 MODMUELL
8k
OF9
28 RHVTHM
243k
OF18
21 -
22 -
I
23 -
#
extension .SNG are actually plain ASCII
files which means the songs can also be
created and modified using a simple ASCII
editor. The manual lists the exact format
of the .SNG file. ASCII editing works like
magic too and a simple riff quickly took
the shape of a song.
Each individual track can have an unlim-
ited number of instruments (samples) but
up to 100 instruments are allowed per
song. You can even mix samples taken at
different rates within the same song!
TrakCom is also capable of loading songs
created by the MJUZAKK program.
With the Compo Digital Audio
Interface (not tested here), TrakCom can
be used to process and copy digital
sa'mples from CD to DAT without any
loss of quality. Furthermore, any
TrakCom song, regardless of its original
sampling rate, can be exported using this
interface in either CD (44. 1 kHz) or DAT
Installation
A list of loaded samples
(48 kHz). With high quality samples this
means professional quality masters.
All the information in the manual is
presented succinctly and in a relaxed and
amusing manner - a nice change from
normally dry and dull computer manuals.
The German ring-bound manual with this
preview version is being translated for the
UK release.
Even though you can pick up a real synth
fairly cheaply these days, thanks to miniatu-
arisation and digital electronics, TrakCom
is an excellent alternative for Falcon
owners. Besides, with TrakCom you are
not limited to pre-programmed sounds but
can sample any sound under the sun.
The only shortcoming is the inability to
sample directly but, instead, having to rely
on external programs. It would be nice if
the next version rectified this. On the
other hand, if you already own MusiCom
then TrakCom is an ideal companion
program. In any case, once the samples are
imported, and assuming they are of a high
enough quality, there is nothing preventing
anyone from creating CD-ready profes-
sional quality songs.
After a very short time TrakCom
became second nature as my own little
masterpiece took shape. Watch the Top
Ten in the near future...
TrakCom comes on four double-sided disks,
although the program itself takes up only a portion
of the first disk. The remainder, as well as the
other three disks, contains various demos and
numerous samples. In this way you can start
making music right away and roll your own samples
later.
Although there is no installation program as
such, installing TrakCom is quite straightforward. It
involves simply copying all four disks to the same
partition on the hard drive. This will create a
folder called TRAKCOM with all files already
inside. However, some of these files are
compressed.
In the TRAKCOM folder is the program itself
and another folder called DEMO which contains
compressed samples and demo songs. These files
are self-extracting and have the extension TOS so
all you need to do is double-click them.
In total, the installation uses up some five
megabytes but after removing the compressed files
TRAKCOM will occupy about three megabytes of
hard disk space.
The program is now ready to launch and it
greets the user with the "About" dialog box. This is
OK the first few times but since it requires a click
to get rid of it, the box becomes a nuisance after
the program has been run a few times.
BOTTOM LINE
FEATURES
Many fantastic features but
lack of built-in sampler is
unfortunate
EASE OF USE
Very clean, easy to use and
intuitive user interface both
in menus and windows
VALUE FOR MONEY
Considering the costs of real
synths/sequencers, TrakCom
is a bargain
Excellen^^
ftserage *
Bad
Appalling
ISHIEfffa^P
Good *
Average
Sad
appalling
III.! ill' IUSS
Good *
Overage
Gad
Appalling
Product: TrakCom
Supplier: Compo, 7 Vinegar Hill,
Alconbury Weston,
Huntington, PE17 5JA
Telephone: 0525 718181
Price: DM199 [about £80]
Configuration: Falcon, hard disk, 4Mb
of
640 x 400
Atari ST User August 1994
Electronic mail
Walk round any modern office
anywhere in the world and you'll
usually find that their main method of
communication is via E-mail, a fast
and efficient way of sending info to
someone anywhere in the world.
Unlike the telephone where the
person may be out, or a letter that
may be lost in the post or delayed for
a couple of days, E-mail drops your
message off in the recipient's Comput-
erised "mailbox". It's also possible to
have a receipt in return so that there
are no arguments later.
Another excellent feature is the
ability to send the same message out
to as many people as you wish. Instead
of making telephone calls or posting
off individual letters, simply tell the
computer which people you wish the
document to be sent to and it's done.
The likes of CompuServe offer the
user the best worldwide E-mail
systems, making the commercial
boards even more tempting to the
browsing buyer.
Faxes, telephones and letters will
soon be things of the past.
Information Technology is the
next generation in human commu-
nications, offering a wealth of opportuni-
ties for the user to take advantage of.
With a modem and computer, the
communications world is your oyster.
By contacting the various conferences,
BBS bulletin board systems and using E-
mail, info about nearly any subject from
Swiss offshore banks and golfing umbrel-
las to rather sad Doctor Who and Star
Trek facts can all be downloaded to your
machine.
If you own a business, the likes of CIX,
CompuServe and Internet can put you in
touch with suppliers, partners, agents,
new customers, market intelligence and
other valuable resources.
Even without a company logo, an indi-
vidual has access to a wealth of informa-
tion, whatever line of work or walk of
life they come from. A conversation via
keyboard can be carried on between a
sales rep in Thailand, a manger in New
Zealand and a customer on the Ivory
Coast - deals can be struck at the stroke
of a key.
The system is a dream come true for
CIX, CompuServe, Internet
and the Superhighway offer
the user vast amounts of
information. Adam Phillips
reports on how this data
can be accessed from an
Atari machine
researchers and journalists - a search
exercise can cost less than ten dollars to
access many megs of vital resources that,
if done via traditional methods, could
take an afternoon in a library and a
couple of hours on the phone making
international phone calls.
With the likes of the PC dominating
the world's computer market, there are
often queries at ST User how this data-
base of world knowledge can be
accessed by the low-end computer
The beginner's
4-A — • I
m
:;::: ~f:r::r
guide to
Around the world in eighty seconds
CompuServe
Based in the States, CompuServe is a huge online service that boasts a
rather substantial membership of two million and 45,000 in the UK.
Despite the service being based in America and charging in dollars (keep
an eye on those rates of exchange), CompuServe has access points all
over the planet.
Fortunately, if you're dialling somewhere in Britain, the calls come at
the standard rates so at least some money can be saved. The rates for
European members start off at about 8.5p a minute to gain entry to
CompuServe during peak hours (8am - 7pm weekdays).
Staying within Basic Services, which includes E-mail during off-peak
hours, the usual price will be £6 a month for the use of the service. If you
want more than just the basics, Extended Services, which includes bulletin
boards costs around 5.5p a minute for low speed access and I Ip a minute
for high speed.
Premium Services has the rather high price of £6-£10 an hour but, for
your money, you'll be able to access 2000-odd databases.
Also take into consideration that there are some 700 leading hardware
and software companies available to provide the user with some serious
support. Add to this all the new services specifically created for the UK
market (no surcharges in other words) such as access to the Press
sive and versatile system.
CIX (CompuLink Information Exchange) has been developed to be acces-
sible without a degree in computing science, nearly anyone with a
computer and modem.
CIX is a command line based system that, while a little unnerving at
first, can be picked up with surprising speed and requires the use of
command words to call up the facilities you need.
Also available on CIX is an Internet gateway for those who want to
experience what is the closest thing to the data Superhighway.
The structure of CIX is basically one big, conferencing bulletin
board. Anyone can join and set up their own area of discussion about
nearly any topic and once passed by the powers that be, the sky's the
limit.
Fortunately for ST and Falcon users, CIX caters for all major comms
standards and costs a base rate of £25 to join which includes a user ID and
full, printed manual. Rates begin at 6p during peak hours (8am to 5pm)
and 4p at all other times.
The good news for owners of fast modems is that no additional charges
are incurred for using one. This means that while you may splash out
more on a high speed modem at first, in the long term, after saving
Atari ST User August 1 994
feature
Hardware
To gain access to the mountain of information on offer, as I
well as needing a relatively substantial bank balance, a
modem is an essential part of the proceedings.
This little black box sits to the side of your machine and is
a combined modulation and demodulation device (hence the
name). This means that the modem "modulates" informa-
tioh from the ST into a form that can be sent via a tele-
phone line to the computer at the other end which then
"demodulates" it.
The most important feature to consider when buying a modem, is its baud rate - this basically
dictates how fast information is downloaded to your machine. The longer it takes, the higher the
phone bill and in some cases, the surcharges on a particular service.
When buying a modem, think of long-term expenses. Going cheap on the initial purchase for a
slow modem could result in a loss of money over the coming months because of the time wasted
downloading and uploading with a slower baud rate.
Prices these days for ST comms are exceptional value for money. A year ago, £ 1 50 would have
bought a modem with a 2,400 baud rate. Nowadays, prices have tumbled to a respectable level
and a fax modem running at 14,400 bps (bits per second) can be picked up for a very reasonable
£159.99.
Another crucial requirement is that your modem is Hayes compatible.
market. More specifically how the ST
and Falcon can find an enviable position
on the Superhighway.
In the beginning, comms was always an
anorak's domain - overly complex oper-
ating systems and long lines of fiddly
coding were commonplace and ham-
pered most people from just setting up
their own machine. In the last few years,
things have taken a turn for the better,
easier connections and cheaper, faster
hardware and software being the initial
improvements.
Now, with the privatised telephone
industry, British Telecom and Mercury
are constantly knocking pounds and
pences off the price of phone calls to
gain custom. This is good news for
technophiles when coupled with the fact
that major providers of the various
commercial networks available to
modem users are also reducing their
charges as more and more people hook
in and log on.
communications
page in the UK, 70p for the first page and 45p for subsequent pages in
Europe and £1.75 for the first page and £1.25 a page thereafter for the
rest of the planet. Charges for using the system start at a monthly mini-
mum charge of £6.25 plus services used. Businesses can set up an account
where the minimum monthly charge is £15. Unfortunately, the entire
system only has one CIX access point down in London. This means that
any of us mere mortals who live outside of the Big Smoke, could up end
with phone bills that have a sting in the tail if they aren't monitored
closely.
While Clive James witters on about the Superhighway of information
every Saturday night, the Internet, though not quite realising this dream,
is quite sufficient for the time being.
The system is massive; four million users and some 1 1,500 sites world-
wide make the Internet, at present, a force to be reckoned with. Before
jaws hit the ground though, the service is also one of the most unwieldy
and techie-based computer jungles of all.
The language used to access the humungous mountains of data is
predominantly Unix. If you're fluent with this operating system then you'll
be fine, but for more humble computer novices it's best to concentrate
on the various access points that can be found in CIX and CompuServe.
no directories listing numbers, so if you want a piece of information you're
going to have to hunt the number out. Better still, go to your local
Waterstones and buy a guide to the Internet.
The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog comes highly recom-
mended. Aimed at the first-time user, this tome by Ed Krol offers a wide
variety of useful information and lists some of the services you can use. At
£18.95 it's not exactly cheap but as a comprehensive foot-in-the-door
guide, it's an excellent buy.
Two of the best ways for an individual who isn't interested in a business
account to join the Internet is via CIX (simply type in TELNET at the
prompt) or via Demon on CompuServe. The rates for the latter are
£ 1 2.50 to join and £ 1 for each month with no further charges.
Bulletin boards, private or otherwise
If all this talk of money and intricate operating systems is putting you off a
little, there are an abundance of independent bulletin boards to lose your-
self in. A call is charged at the usual BT rates and there is enough on offer
to make the connection fee worthwhile. Various companies such as Seiko
and Shopper have question-and-answer sessions for customers and will
normally give you a response within 24 hours.
For a list of some of the numbers available, check out the BBS
Directory available from Goodman International.
Atari ST User August 1 994
feature
CoNnect, a
German
shareware title,
offers superb
value for money
Connect Files HindOMS Options
TeminlE
| DisoUg
Uel
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps (
Software
The next key element in the comms process is a good communication
program for your ST or Falcon. If you don't have a competent piece of
software and kit then the likes of CIX and CompuServe are funda-
mentally a waste of time.
An efficient and useful package will help you with down and upload-
ing, offer auto dialling and feature a large amount of terminal emula-
tions. The latter is vital - the world is full of different terminal
formats. So having a program that can communicate with them all is
important especially when you're working with something as unrecog-
nised in the global community as an Atari ST or Falcon.
CoNnect, a shareware title, is an excellent all-round package, offer-
ing several valuable facilities such as opening several terminal windows
at the same time, a wide range of terminal emulations including
graphics capabilities as well as the usual text and even the potential
for turning your ST into an answering machine.
STalker is another highly regarded piece of software that, unlike
CoNnect, is a fully fledged commercial package priced at £39 and
available from Compo Software. Although powerful and versatile,
STalker can be used as a desktop accessory with drop-down menus
available at the top of the window.
This means options such as downloading and uploading can be
moved to the background while you busy yourself with other tasks.
Other features include the ability to log on to your own machine if you
are using someone else's terminal, the option to use differing file
transferring such as Xmodem, plus the more modern and efficient
Ymodem and, you guessed it, Zmodem protocols.
STalker comes
highly recom-
mended for
comms use
Finale
Whil
to take the turn-off onto the Superhighway,
huge storage of data to be accessed with the current set-up.
For businesses, whether you are a corporation using Power
PC's or a small shop using an ST, comms can offer the user so
much.
Even for the individual who uses it for no more than a hobby,
there will be some point in the future where being a member
of Internet will be as, if not more, important as having a phone
or a fax.
A word of warning though: with the entire world at your
fingertips and comms being one of the most addictive
pastimes, keep an eye on the phone bill. Staying on line to
Australia for twenty minutes researching Aboriginal law will
give exclusive insights into a report or study but your bank
account may well feel the strain after a while...you have been
warned.
Jargon buster
Archiving: Squashing programs and files down to fit in to the smallest
memory space possible. Archivers are used to make downloading and
uploading times shorter to save money.
Baud rate: This is a measurement of the speed at which a modem
transfers its data. A rate of ten baud means that the modem transfers
one character per second.
The minimum baud rate you should consider is 2400 (costing around
£99) and even this is slow by today's standards. It's important to keep
in mind that if the services you are accessing only have modems that
run at 2400, there's little point in investing in a 19200 bps modem - it
won't speed up the process.
BBS: A computer configured to accept incoming calls and act as a
central file and message database for its users. It is monitored by a
Sysop.
De-archiving: Once you have the archived material, it's time to de-
archive it so it can be used.
Download: The process by which you take information "down" a tele-
phone line from a remote computer and bring it onto your machine.
Offline reader: An OLR is a money-saving program which is designed
to minimise your time on line. It will place your messages on a BBS,
download any messages for you from the BBS, transfer any other files
to and fro as specified, and then let you do your reading and replying at
leisure, long after the modem has been disconnected from the tele-
phone.
Online: A term used to describe any time when your computer is
actually connected to another machine.
Sysop (System Operator): The person who controls the BBS is a
Sysop. They are in a position to offer you advice and help if you should
happen to stumble in to difficulty.
Upload: The opposite of download, you upload a program when you
send it from your machine to another computer or BBS via the phone
line.
if Atari ST User August 1 994
letters
Aussie Atari support
I am writing in a somewhat annoyed state after
having found out that, after just recently
buying myself a 1040 STE, Atari have shut
down their offices over here.
In 1992 I had a 520 STFM and got most of
my software through a public domain company
on the mainland. They have either moved or
have also closed down.
I don't know if there is even an Atari user
group operating near my home town of
Hobart. So, if you print this letter, could you
include my name and address in the hope that
some Atari public domain library or user
group may get in touch with me?
It's a shame that a machine as good as the
ST is so under supported here in Australia.
One bit of interesting news is that Amiga
users are also howling that Commodore have
also shut down over here.
S. Botak, Tasmania, Australia
Consider it done. If there are any PD
libraries or user groups who can help Mr
Botak, you can contact him at the follow-
ing address: 3146 Tower Road, Newtown,
Hobart, Tasmania 7009.
Atari CD-ROM
I see that there are dedicated Atari CD-ROM
disks gradually becoming available. Does this
suggest that we can finally start to see the ST
catching up with the current explosion of the
so-called multimedia market as seen on the
PC?
If so, how available are CD-ROM drives and
are they easy to connect to the ST?
J. Hewlett, Northamsphire
Unfortunately, your bog standard ST is a
little short of being a true multimedia
machine. It simply doesn't have the graph-
ics and sound capability required to
contend with the PC.
The Falcon however, will make an ideal
multimedia machine. With its CD-quality
sound and 32000 plus colour graphics, it's
more than a match for the PC. All we need
now is software to take full advantage of
what the Falcon's enhanced technology has
to offer.
Since the release of the Atari-dedicated
CD-ROM disks, there seems to have been a
noticeable increase in the availability of
CD-ROM drives. System Solutions seem to
be leading the way here, selling the Apple
300 CD-ROM drive, together with appro-
Young and old, and from as far away as Australia,
ST Users come in all shapes and sizes
priate leads and ExtenDOS driver
software to connect it to any Atari
computer.
System Solutions also stock Atari-
specific CD-ROM disks such as
Gemini and Bernd Lohium disks
volumes I and 2, with two new CD-ROM
titles soon to be added to their range.
Prices for the drives start from £249 and
all units are plug in and go. If you are inter-
ested, you can contact System Solutions on
0753 832212.
Help at last
I was extremely interested to see the news
piece in the July issue about Silica Systems
opening stores nationwide and bringing with
them the "innovative" idea that people selling
computers should be people who understand
them.
I for one will be welcoming them with open
arms. It will make a refreshing change to be
able to talk to someone who actually knows all
about the product they are selling.
I, probably like so many others, have
become completely fed up with obviously
computer illiterate sales people in a major high
street store looking totally bemused when
faced with even the most basic computer-
related questions. Hoorah for Silica I say.
S. Strickland, London
Computer stores having on-site technical
and advice service is certainly something
new to the average high street computer
shopper.
No doubt novices to computers will be
breathing a sigh of relief at having a place
to buy a computer where they can be
Now
assured of expert advice. So once again,
hoorah for Silica.
Full-priced games
With ST games becoming ever scarcer, why
don't you put full price games on your
coverdisks? Obviously this can't be done month
after month, but surely the odd game every
few months would be OK?
I also buy the other two ST mags and I'm
tired of seeing word processors, utilities and
art packages.
A. Moore, Somerset
Unfortunately, all magazines are prevented
from placing full price games on their
coverdisks due to regulations laid down by
ELSPA (European Leisure Software
Publishers Association).
The reasoning they give is that such
distribution of games would damage the
games industry. This is quite possible and
could only mean a quicker decline of an
already disappointing level of support from
games software houses.
Gizza job
£25
Prize
Letter
When I leave school, I would like to write for a computer magazine. C
you give me any hints and tips on how to go about getting a job on a
computer games mag?
I have had an STFM for 2 years now and my dad has a PC and my little
brother has a SNES. I play games all the time as well as using word
processors.
Sarah Tilley (aged 1 2), Humberside
Well Sarah, I would normally say most computer magazines need good writers who can
also come up with interesting ideas for features. Which means sending in an example
review of a game as well as a list of as many ideas for features that you can think of. Oh,
and you'll also need to include your CV too. But you won't have one of those yet will you?
However, it seems your Mum did the posting of your letter for you because I found a
little note from her suggesting that / also tell you that you need to do your school home-
work before even switching on a computer, as well as never arguing with her when it's
time to stop playing games and head off to bed.
So, I'm afraid you'll have to add those extra bits on to my list of hints and tips too.
One final tip: Maybe you could use the £25 to bribe your brother into doing your
homework for you. just a thought.
Shareware whinge
I am fed up with the ever present "whinging"
document file which comes with all shareware
programs requesting that people send money
to the author in order to register their copy.
I have registered four shareware programs
and have never heard a thing from the authors.
C. Delaney, Peterborough
On the whole, the shareware system works
very well. However, you must remember
that these authors are writing programs
in their spare time and must reply
personally to possibly hundreds of
registered users.
You also failed to mention which
programs you registered as well as how long
ago you sent off the fee, so it's difficult to
comment on your particular case. I would
think that yours is an unfortunate but
isolated incident.
Waiting to hear from you...
To join the ST chat show drop a line to
The Editor, Write Now, Atari ST User,
Europa House, Adlington Park,
Macclesfield SK 1 4NP
Atari ST User August 1 994
Exactly a year ago, we reported on
the fast-growing practice of dissemi-
nating pornography including hard-
core porn using computers, such as
the ST and Falcon. We showed how,
using modems and telephone lines,
material could be distributed across
international borders. We demon-
strated how easy it was to do, and the
variety of still and moving images
available.
We exposed how children had been
caught passing such material around
on floppy disks in school playgrounds,
and highlighted the problem of how
easy it was for a child to conceal such
material at home from non-
computer-literate parents.
The article concluded by reporting
possible forthcoming legislation to
tighten up the law on this subject, but
doubted whether telephone lines
could ever be properly policed
morally or practically.
Since then, public concern has
risen, with numerous television
programmes going over the same old
arguments and problems, and many
major investigations in the press. The
original Atari ST User article was
extensively quoted in The Guardian
newspaper and the Reader's Digest
magazine, for example. Until anabolic
steroids really take off as the next
media-led moral panic, pornography
of this type looks set to continue to
dominate the headlines.
Here then, we summarise recent
developments.
It once meant little to most people.
Like virtual reality, multimedia and
networking, computer pornography
lurked in the realm of hi-tech
phrases which had little to do with the
real world for the majority of adults.
Not any more. With media interest
running at an all-time high, computer
pornography has been catapulted into
the public conscience.
Colin Jack was a married, middle-aged
man living in rural Norfolk. Last summer,
police acting on a tip off swooped on his
home to discover a major telephone-led,
computer porn distribution network.
"This was hard core material, sex,
Snubbed
The Home Secretary Michael
Howard has so far failed to turn
the Commons Select Committee's
recommendations into law
Committee at the Houses of Parliament
published a report on computer pornog-
raphy. One of its recommendations
involved a tightening of the law to cover
the legal loopholes surrounding
electronic data.
The problem is that while it is easy to
prove that a magazine or video is porno-
graphic, it is a different thing entirely
prosecuting someone on the strength of
a set of electronic bleeps passing along a
telephone line.
"There is immense public concern
about computer pornography," said Sir
Ivan Lawrence, Conservative Chairman
of the Committee. "The technology
Computer
still the
As the techno pornographers continue to outpace
the law and Government legislators dither,
Phil Morse returns to the subject he first reported
on a year ago to monitor developments
bondage, torture. It was far worse than
anything you'd find in the shops,"
explained Sergeant John Ashley of
Greater Manchester Police's Obscene
Publications Squad.
Mr Jack was sentenced, pending
appeal, to five months imprisonment, and
the subject was suddenly top of the
country's moral agenda.
In February, a Home Affairs Select
advances that have been made recently
have been moving ahead of the law." The
law as it stands bans importing pornogra-
phy in any "tangible" form, and this is
where modem-transmitted pornography
escapes the law's exact wording.
Labour MP Steve Byers said: "To take
an extreme case, imagine that a
perverted teacher calls up a number in
the Netherlands on the school computer.
The Home Office Select Committee made a
number of considered recommendations to the
Governement, most of which were not taken
up. These included:
e Increasing the penalty for transmitting pornog-
raphy within Britain's boundaries from £1,000
to £2,500 and three months imprisonment
e Amending the Customs Consolidation Act to
make clear that it is an offence to import
pornographic material into the country, and to
make this offence arrestable
e Clarification of the law to make it absolutely
clear that possession of pornography on, say, a
hard disk is as much of an offence as having it
on printed paper
e The banning of all advertisements (for instance,
in magazines) for obscene material distributed
from abroad
e Making training in computers more widely avail-
able to police officers, and maybe even inclu-
sion in the CID training course
e Giving guidance to headteachers about dealing
with computer pornography, and asking schools
to report back on any incidents of porn discov-
ered so as to form an accurate picture of the
extent of the problem among children
SESSION K-W-S*
COMPUTER PORNOGRAPHY
II Atari ST User August 1994
feature
, «™ „=:, -„
m
^femefyfy
„,«™
«M
^ s * s ^m
t_...t.
l_- 1-1— 1. <*.
-— .t- It* -ill » •»— .* b.
MM
ss^i
%£?£«£ ™«
g— •— — - «~ ■ —• ■"-"•
Michael
CSS*.*
*^;"°?*i rr .*f,"^" SrT^.ET'bita.'^.ST^t
■^
Howard's
kl"^S
% l Si'i^'U^
:j»;. «j;-;_-_:a) a*« eacfwlotn
limited
' i^^
SSi ". %£
;^^-r^'"^"«"s
is
reforms of
«w — „
^ -.I* ,
the
^""V'S;
?£
computer
-n.'™
■-■a« «hi- .=!
Id-: M-dUff C« U* MVI.
,„
pornography
j_*_
—"* " BT * i °°
dfctw rtlF. — ! anrtdm.
laws are
^t^M
^.".^•S, 1 .
r^s^VtSss^ £^
announced
,cj "** :
by the
- ^".«
„!,„ ^ w .„
.„« «a ....«.;
Home
' ;r£T£
-as ass?
4 .-**.». «Cle» to •**«.
o.
Office
whether such cases should go to court
or not, and the Police Federation, repre-
senting those who would be enforcing
the law, share this view. But for some
reason, the Government are reluctant to
proceed with such law clarification.
With devastating timing, one day after
the report a boy of I3's attempted rape
of a six-year-old was partly attributed to
his viewing of computer porn. Home
Office minister David Maclean
announced that the Government would
not be changing the law.
There are admittedly certain difficul-
ties surrounding the matter. Customs
officials warned of the possible
What vou can do
porn
big issue
He could have hard core pornography,
which it would be illegal to buy in this
country, transmitted down the line,
without breaking the law."
TIGHTENING
Obviously it would be impossible to
police every single telephone line coming
in and out of the country. But the MPs
who made up the Select Committee
nevertheless decided that tightening the
law in this area would at least
controversial effects of monitoring
phone lines. They also pointed to the
probable ineffectiveness of mounting
such a monitoring service.
But the CPS and many other bodies
involved still feel that a change in the law
would be beneficial for the reason the
Select Committee raised: a full prosecu-
tion could at least be brought where
cases had been discovered, by whatever
means. Some changes in the law have
occurred. The
allow the police to
prosecute fully when
- by whatever ■-.
means - they discov-
ered such activities
taking place.
The Crown Pro-
secution Service,
whose job it is to decide
princes
-r^oToflVe*^
rrf^t
tS**.r-
making of compos-
ite images is now
illegal and it is
also illegal to
actually transmit
data (send it
from your own
computer to
someone else's)
if that data is
pornographic.
The Video
Record-ings Act
1984, which
bans video
I porn, has now
been extended
to cover moving
hoSf ^ P I > ' ma g es "electronically
£j-gef> stored on computer
chips or cartridges".
But none of this
-SsSSf fe^SfS* * ddr <^ the Problems
highlighted in the Select
Committee's report,
because if you access
porn from a bulletin
board in, say Norway, it
is they who are doing
Butted
images ou^—
SuO^dM Boot*. •Ml»WO"riD«n Ii, "^r dt
tsSsssssa
• Learn computer basics if you don't know
them, so you can at least view the contents of
disks found in your child's disk box to check
for pornography
9 If you access bulletin boards, do not allow
your children to do so. And don't let children
have modems of their own
• Schools should check their computers for
pornography; ensure that staff do. "AM
schools should teach computer ethics.
They're all for teaching children how wonder-
ful computers are, but they should also teach
about the harm they can do," says Sergeant
Ashley
Report any evidence of computer pornogra-
phy you find to the police
the transmitting, not you.
And technology does not stand still.
Hard core pornography is already
making its way onto CD-ROM, with all
the massive leaps of storage capacity,
picture and sound quality that this
entails.
The Falcon's vastly superior picture
and sound handling can only add to the
sophistication available to the computer
pornographer. Even porn entrepreneur
Paul Raymond is moving in, releasing the
whole of his Electric Blue soft porn video
catalogue on CD-ROM.
EXPOSED
And with one school headteacher
reporting that a third of his pupils
own computer equipment capable of
viewing porn, and that at least one porn
disk had been discovered circulating
among them, it takes only a small leap
of the imagination to conclude
that a significant minority of schoolchild-
ren have been exposed to computer
porn.
If the Government continue to ignore
the advice of those who have taken the
trouble to research the problem, they
will have their hands tied in their efforts
to find a solution.
Loophole closed
While the authorities still seem to struggle with
the technicalities involved in banning many
aspects of computer pornography, one area
where they have managed to close a loophole is
that of so-called "composite" images.
A raid on a house in Watford by Scotland
Yard's Obscene Publications Squad, which
specialises in cracking paedophile rings, netted a
man who was using a graphics package to super-
impose a young girl's head onto a naked adult
woman's body. By removing pubic hair and
shrinking the woman's breasts, he made a
convincing piece of still "child" pomograpghy.
At the time, because of the usual technology-
outpacing-the-wording-of-the-law problem, he
could not be prosecuted. Since then, this legal
loophole has been closed in the Criminal Justice
and Public Order Bill, which should have been
passed by the time you are reading this.
Atari ST User August 1 994
VIDI ST (12)
This offers a breakthrough in Multimedia Video.
Jammed full of features that are suitable for almost any
imaging application. Offering Animation, Image
Processing, Image Capture and file support for no less
than 3 computer platforms. Image capture is so simple,
both colour and mono images are captured in less than
second. Images can be displayed in almost any resolu-
tion and colour mode up to 740x480 in true colour.
Main features include:-
Both colour and mono image capture
No separate RGB splitter or filters required
Fully functional Animation Workstation
Mix images to almost any resolution
All Atari colour modes are supported
Many Image Processing effects
ULTIMATE VIRUS KILLER
Ultimate Virus Killer is the ultimate tool to protect your Atari ST. STE,
MEGA & TT computers from virus infection. With this package you
can detect, destroy and protect yourself from over 50 types of
virus. Leaving your valuable software investment safe.
TRUEPAINT
TruePaint is the first art package to take advantage of the true
colour capabilities of the Falcon030 computer. Some of the high-
lights of the products are:
• Works on all STs and Falcons in all screen resolutions including
768x480 True Colour
% Easy to use Multi-Window environment with menus, toolbox
and keyboard shortcuts
9 Full range of drawing tools
• A large variety of effects including shear, wrinkle, smooth, rain-
bow etc
• Flexible zoom, full screen mode with edit, colour picker, bezier
curves...
• Animation, Font/Speedo GDOS support wide variety of file
formats including IFF, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, Targa, IMG. Neochrome
and more
• Extensive and informative a;
1 70 page manual
READER OFFERS
Order
: 051-357 1275
Fax: 051-357 2813 General Enquiries: 051-357 2961
Order at any rime of the day or night. Don't forget to give your name, address and credit card number
VIDEOMASTER
The Ultimate Multi Media System for your computer. Videomaster
is a revolutionary breakthrough in home computer technology
combining the complexity of a Video Digitiser with a Sound
Sampler in a single easy to use low cost unit, to bring you the ulti-
mate home multi media video/audio editing package.
Videomaster will allow you to record monochrome, quarter
screen pictures at speeds of up to 25/30 frames per second
|Europe/USA| providing ultra smooth playback at high speeds.
These pictures can be recorded from the output of a video
recorder or directly from a video camera or a camcorder and
replayed on your computer screen.
Videomaster can produce great 'grey' scale pictures from any
video source with a pause or still frame facility. The colour filters
provided in this package will enable the users of video cameras or
camcorders to produce high quality still pictures in glorious
colour.
Videomaster features a sound sampler as part of the hardware,
though the software can be used with external sound samplers.
recording and editing program within the videomaster software.
The Videomaster system also features a video sequencer.
The complete package contains the Videomaster video digitising
and sound sampling hardware unit, TRI-Colour filters for colour
camera use, comprehensive user guide and full system software.
Videomaster will work on any standard Atari ST with at least a
single I Mb floppy disk drive and a colour monitor. At least I Mb
RAM is recommended. RRP £69.95, save £1 5 with this offer.
K
VIDEO
PICTURES
x
ISTO
YOUR
coMPims
STEREO MASTER
Stereo Master is a low cost, high quality sound
sampler for the Atari ST. It includes many features
such as:
• Realtime Playback
• Cut or Delete selected sample area
• Filter Sample with hard/soft
filter
• Hi-Fi Stereo
Playback option
• Built-in realtime
special effects
including Echo,
Reverb, Ramp
Pitch up/down
and Multi Echo
Chorus
Atari ST User August 1 994
reader offers
REPLAY 16
At last, a low cost 1 6 bit sampling system for the Atari ST, featuring full i 6 bit input and output in the same unit. The system comes complete with a sophisticated sample
making/editing program, superb digital Drum machine program, and a powerful MIDI keyboard emulation program which gives the user the ultimate in MIDI sample
control.
HARDWARE - The 1 6 bit sampling unit plugs into the cartridge port of the ST. Audio connections to and from the sampler are provided via standard Phono connectors. An
Input volume control is also provided.
SOFTWARE - EDITOR - The sample editor is a highly flexible WIMP style program which allows conversion or editing between any AVR format 8/ 1 2/1 6 bit Mono or
Stereo samples. Sampling rates of up to 48Khz can be used, but the program can re-synthesise samples to practically any other speed.
Features include: ■ Volume control 'Digital filtering and 3D frequency analysis ■ Cross fade fooping ■ Record 'Play 'Fast Forward/Rewind with VCR style
controls and much, much more...
DRUMBEAT - A 4 voice polyphonic Drum machine with full MIDI control. Up to 30 different samples can be loaded into a kit at
once and 50 patterns can be programmed in either realtime or steptime. Samples can be up to 1Mb in length each.
MIDIPLAY - Flexible keyboard emulator which can cope with up to 1 28 samples in memory at once. Any sample can be
assigned to any note or range of notes in a 9 octave range. Midiplay can
play up to 4 VOICE/NOTE polyphonic with 3 levels velocity sensitivity while
in single voice mode. An advanced sample loop point editor with
AuTOLOOP [2ero Crossing) detection is also incorporated to ease loop
point editing.
The system runs on any ST or STE with 502K ( 1 Mb min is recom-
mended), and comes complete with hardware, software and compre-
RE INK SPRAY
Save money and the environment with Re-Ink Spray and bring back
life to your exhausted printer ribbon. Simple and cost effective, it
can save you up to 90% on ribbon costs and gwes cleaner, blacker
print with no blotches and it works for all fabric ribbons. Just open
the ribbon case, spray Re-Ink onto the ribbon and hey prestol.
COVERDISKS
Did you miss out on any 1 992 Atari ST User CoverDisks? If
so. now is your chance to obtain our pack of 1 2 CoverDisks for
1 992, and packs of 6 CoverDisks from January to June and
July to December 1993.
MIDI SURVIVAL GUIDE
Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro, the Midi Survival
Guide shows you the way. No maths, no Midi theory, just practical
advice on starting up and ending up with a working Midi system.
PRO PUNTER 2 PLUS
DO VOU WANT TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF
WINNING ON THE HORSES? THEN LOOK NO
FURTHER.
Independent comparative reviews
confirm that Pro Punter is still the
performance benchmark by which
all others are judged.
6 2(PCus
The best racing software... available. The Racing Post.
Officially proven to the racing press and other magazines by sending time and date
franked letters by Post Office mail, ProPunter has shown that it can predict winners
with remarkable accuracy. Profljnter is also cautious with your money. If it thinks
there b any doubt about the outcome of the race, it will advise you not to bet.
The NEW second generation Pro-Punter is written to professional standards and is
attractive and easy to use. it features full editing and review of race data entered
and also a unique low-maintenance database that does not need constant
updating.
In addition to UK features, Pro Punter 2 contains unique course/going/class editors
and wis configure to metric weights/distances, thus allowing
configuration for raojxj worldwide.
BINDER & BACK ISSUES
If you've missed any of these issues, now's your chance to put
things right, by either buying an individual issue or a full six
months' worth. But hurry - stocks are limited! Keep all your back
issues in pristine condition with the Atari ST User binder a must
for any serious Atari user.
I JO'AJRI
! READEROFFERS
' Offers subject to availability,
I All prices include UK postage, packing
and VAT. For orders over £1 please
| add £5 for Eire/EEC, £1 for overseas
, unless specified above. Overseas
[ orders despatched by Airmail.
■ Valid to July 31, 1994
PRODUCT
ORDER NO.
PRICE
Please add postage as detailed
^j Pfease tick if you do not wish to receive promotional materia] from other com
janfes. TOTAL
£
I wish to pay by:
Cheque/Eurocheque made payable to Europress Direct
]Access/M aste rcard/ Eu rocard/
Barclaycard/Visa/Connect Expiry
Date
_Signed_
in:
Daytime telephone number.
Send to: Europress Direct, FREEPOST, EHesmere Port, South Wirral L65 3EB {No stamp needed if posted in ukj
Products are normally despatched within 48 hours of receipt but delivery of certain items could take up to 28 days $TU ^UG
Atari ST User August 1 994
Chequebook
Programmed by: Denys Bennett
Available from: Denys Bennett
Chequebook features two interesting pack-
ages for the home financier who doesn't
trust banks and wants to personally keep
tabs on what's moving in and out of his (or
her) account. The title is designed to be a
speedier alternative to a spreadsheet
The program handles cheques and
deposits, can set up and maintain standing
orders or direct debits and allows the user
to compare their statement with the bank's.
Other features include the ability to enter
different currencies, such as French francs,
while retaining the ability to estimate your
current account balance in sterling until that
final, joyous bill arrives.
Search options allow the user to hunt
down that missing tenner for which they can
find no explanation, find the cheque that
was supposed to have been sent to the
taxman 12 months ago, cut an entry from
one account and paste it in to another,
produce a report of all cash card with-
drawals - the list goes on and on.
Produced in an easy-to-use system and
supplied with well written and self-mocking
humourised instructions (one section reads
- "Boring Detail" and he's so right),
Chequebook is a comprehensive package
that beckons you to have a further look.
As a bonus, also included on the value-
packed disk is a colour driver for the
Hewlett-Packard 550c Colour Ink Jet that
can be used in co-operation with I st Word
Plus. This process involves using Hebrew
characters as shift characters to turn on ink
colours. Why this should be is one of life's
great mysteries and one I'm sure some help-
ful soul out there is begging to answer for
me. By using the character tablet and mouse
pointer, you are able to enter a particular
Hebrew character and, hey presto, you can
tell the computer where you want the ink
to change colour.
The Hebrew characters don't print, so
have no fear of your sheet of text printing
out looking more like a prop out of Raiders
Of The Lost Ark than just a colourful
document
The only downside is the lack of a 'What
You See Is What You Get' screen display
that's always a useful and highly valued inclu-
sion with any serious text-related package.
The good news for Falcon owners is that
Chequebook is fully compatible, so with
only a tenner needed to lay your hands on
the full version, this is a rich set of
programs.
;.;.
Ml >«f« ; :.!:..«. to*
&ew
--- : ~ \
•:.! srn :n 1 -it<!
till
'-■ ■ ,-t: ■ Hffjtff '■'■' Ml
:*■*<>
..„ ; n — -7- r
-.' ' «, ',-. '! •-■
■'''■■" ■-'■ : _
M s :ki
it.vxts- iv.vm-
ImfH ttarM he
.nit
-r
- t
Financial worries and despair are alleviated
in Chequebook, a handy utility for keeping
track of your cash
Forget the 3 DO, Jaguar, PS-X, Mars,
Saturn and Project Reality - at least
PD is actually available to buy
h joy! Another month passes and yet more and more promises are
; made by those next-generation companies with their heads in the
clouds and their PR company spewing out hollow promises and specifi-
cation lists the length and breadth of the planet, leaving every consumer
in considerable doubt about what to actually buy.
Okay, so PD may not be up to the standards of Alien Vs Predator but
it makes a refreshing change to have an envelope quietly slipping on to the desk and
not a fanfare of hype and empty boxes with a slip of paper reading "sorry, game not
available until Autumn, 1995, but could you plug it in your mag anyway with this
single screenshot..."
Snacman
Programmed by: Impact Software
Available from: Goodman International
Disk No. GD 2276
m
-
~ <ii
'
_
!
LIVES:* IHIIt* I[»:H KaFE:MM15
Oh, happiness and much mirth, another pacman
variant! After Pacman On E's last month, I simply
couldn't keep myself away from this veritable
pandora's box of originality.
For all of those who have been fortunate enough
not to have ever heard of the concept behind this
rusty, aching-at-the-joints title, the player takes
control of a little yellow head - very much a vari-
ant on the acid head found on most rave posters in
the mid-80s.
Move this little critter round a maze and eat pills
- again and again and again. Snacman, the 2.24 in
the afternoon, 1 5th, of May 1 994 special collector's
edition, is certainly a very polished conversion,
featuring a series of differing mazes and incredibly annoying music - body blows and fluids were
nearly exchanged in the office over who had access rights to the volume control.
Speed is just right with ghosts thankfully not programmed to follow you round blindly, copying
your every move. One of the most irritating features is the restart if you get killed. No matter
how many pills you may have eaten on a particular screen, once touched by a ghost it's back to
the beginning of that level to start all over again.
Pacman On E's is the better game simply for variety but, at the end of the millennium when so
much has developed in the games concept department, Pacman should surely be put to rest once
and for all. It was never that brilliant anyway.
Perhaps, though, we can look forward to Pacman 2000 on the Jaguar. Don't even think about
it, Mr Minter.
Pacman - again..
Atari ST User August 1 994
public domain
Spacewar 2000
Programmed by: J Chan
Available from: LAPD
Disk No. G 365
Cast your mind back a few months ago and you may well remember
an STE specific title called Utopos that featured two-player action in
the style of Asteroids and Thrust. Well, here comes Spacewar 2000,
a similar offering for all blast addicts out there.
Each player must choose a ship from the shipyard and then enter a
single-screen combat zone littered with obstacles such as indestruc-
tible asteroids, to try and be the first to blow the other into the
abyss-like realms of space. The fight is spread out over ten battles to
the death - the accumulator of the most victories is the winner.
Also up for grabs for those who earn the most cash are various
weapon power-ups, armour and other special features that are all
available from your local, friendly shipyard.
The gameplay is relatively fun and allows up to four players, but
the main problem is the way it all moves - even on the STE, the
A two-player
Asteroids derivative,
Spacewar 2000 is a
relatively fun, if
crude-moving, game
sprites move jerkily and unconvincingly. Smoothness is vital to any
Asteroids variant to help the game flow along.
Despite the rather rough operating system, Spacewar 2000 is a rela-
tively fun game. If you own an STE though, Utopos is a much better
buy.
Gapper
Programmed by: Peter Kerr
Available from: Caledonia PDL
Disk No. GM- 1 82
Gapper is an odd game. Clear the screen of tiles by matching pairs of the same "suit" together
within a time limit. Ideally, you must do them as close to each other as possible or you'll end up
with more being added as the original tiles are taken away.
Sounds different? Sounds a little dull? Well, in practice, Gapper is relatively addictive and fun.
Everything is changeable. The
time limit, the number of tiles
that you begin with and, on the
full version, different types of
tiles may be selected.
Also available is a pseudo
three-dimensional view of the
action with a grid to help you
make sure that there aren't
too many gaps between the
tiles you wish to match.
The main gripe I have is that
much of the gameplay comes
down to luck and how far
apart the computer puts each
potentially matching piece.
With this element of chance,
play can sometimes turn a little
frustrating as you wipe out the
remaining two pieces, only to
have another couple appear in their place. Graphics are unfortunately remarkably dull and, if the
author decides to go ahead with a sequel, a facelift for the program would be met with this
reviewer's open arms. Sound is also sparse and uninteresting - perhaps some other spot effects
could have been put somewhere in the proceedings.
Despite these shortcomings, Gappers is different and simple to use, enough to warrant a play on.
Just about recommended.
Tiles, tiles and more tiles are the predominant
feature in Gappers, a quirky title from Caledonia
OCR
Programmed by: Alexander Clauss
Available from: Goodman International
Disk No. GD 2254
Optical character recognition - a
mouthful indeed and with German
instructions das boot, it certainly takes a
little time to work out what each option
does.
The basic function of the utility, for the
uninitiated, is for the user to be able to load
in a picture file (in this case IMG) and get
the computer to read it.
If any text is present on the fixed image,
the program tries to recognise it and turn it
from a simple IMG file into ASCII text. This
can then be transferred to a word process-
ing package and worked on.
There are several options available from
cutting and copying to sizing, and various
recognition facilities such as a query rate -
should it guess or ask you for your opinion?
It's an interesting and valid package that, if
a need can be found for it in your software
library, is well worth having.
Adventure
Creature
Programmed by: Deano
Available from: The Floppyshop
Disk No. UTL 4142
I love PD. Where else can you find a text
adventure creator. Slaving over the keyboard,
trying to work out what the hell the right
word is to enter in to the computer's arthritic
parser (remember those wonderful word
engines before Monkey Island came along?).
The STOS-based Adventure Creator is a
simple and easy-to-use package to help you
make up those scenarios that commercial soft-
ware houses could never release.
Presented in a series of straightforward
menus dictating object and location entries and
how they are all connected and interwoven,
it's simply a case of typing in the various details
and running the end product via the test
program.
Documentation is extensive, with the author
kindly including a section on the roots of
adventuring and the basic concept behind the
genre of the keyboard-based variety.
The only real fault is that the parser, even by
the standards of the Spectrum in its final
couple of years, is extremely unflexible and
restricted.
This is illustrated by the sample adventure
where you, as a female student, must escape
from the school of St Brides without being
caught - most of the time is spent trying to
work out the right words.
Despite this rather large and cumbersome
shortcoming, it's worth having a look at if only
for the chance to muck around with the
system and amuse yourself and your friends for
a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.
Atari ST User August 1 994 T
public domain
Text can be copied, cut
and spliced with Pen Pal
Pen Pal/
Recipe Box
Programmed by: Anthony Wilson
Available from: Goodman International
Disk No. GD 2255
Winging their way from the great US of A are
a text editor calling itself Pen Pal and Recipe
Box, a computerised cookery book. The
former is a simple, quirky tool for slapping in a
large amount of text and editing, cutting and
copying it to your heart's content.
Don't be mistaken - it's not a fully-blown
word processor, but for what it purports to
be, Pen Pal hits the mark. The user interface,
while very basically set out, is attractive and
easy to use.
The real jewel on the disk though is the
excellent Recipe Box. If you're tired of recipe
books, newspaper cuttings, index cards and
other avenues of cookery tips and storage,
then the versatility and professionalism of
Recipe Box is an ideal replacement.
It's one of those packages which shows off
the use and practicality of computers and how
they can help even in a small way like this.
Recipes can be entered and organised into
chapters under varying titles and, with the full-
blown version, you can have 1,000 chapters
with 2,500 recipes in each.
Each of these, in turn, can be amended,
deleted or even resized so that if you have to
re-calculate a menu for a group of six and not
for the usual one or two, a click on the mouse
button and the briefest of keyboard entries can
bring up the appropriate amounts required.
On top of this, there are menu timetables
that can be filled in and printed out and a
comprehensive A-Z calorie chart that ranges
from four ounces of eels (374) to half a cup of
Zucchini (20).
All these variables, options and facilities add
up to a serious package that should be part of
every chefs menu for success.
Attention all PD libraries
If you wish to feature in Atari ST User, just send any of your titles which you feel worthy of
review to: Public Sector, Atari ST User, Europress Publications, Europa House, Adlington
Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP.
Please include a list of the contents of each disk detailing the program name/s and
what they are. This ensures quick assessment and inclusion in the magazine. If you are a
shareware author, send in your latest creation along with a list of libraries who will be
distributing your program/s thereby achieving maximum publicity.
Blox
Programmed by: Dave Baggett
Available from: Goodman International
Disk No. GD2267
According to the README.DOC at the beginning of the game, Blox features stunning, art-deco
graphics (not), quick, crisp animation (sort of), vibrant, digitized sound (yeah, right) and so on
and so on.
Pushing these wonderfully exaggerated Americanisms aside to look at the actual game reveals
a healthy but not nearly as rosy game as the PR blabs about.
The gameplay is a spin off of Tetris. Instead of the usual vertical challenge of the Russian clas-
sic, the player is presented with a gaming area where a single tile sits in the centre.
Subsequently, clumps of tiles fall from every direction - horizontally, vertically and diagonally.
These may be rotated or moved in any direction other than backwards and must be placed so
that rings are created round the central piece.
Colour matching is not important, the computer takes care of that. All you need to worry
about is making sure that your revolvable clocks fit in to a solid shape. Once a ring has been
formed, the amassed tiles collapse and after five have been formed, you're moved up a level.
For panic situations as the screen fills and you're desperately trying to clear it, hit the
spacebar and you can nuke
one of the partially completed
rings.
The gameplay is certainly
challenging and addictive at
times, even if the graphics and
sound do the title no favours.
If you're expecting this to
be a walkover though, think
again, Blox is a hard nut to
crack. Recommended.
- h <£- .-"■■ \
Guide the clumps of tiles
to the central piece and
create rings to move onto
the next stage
An excellent package for keeping all those
home-spun recipes on one handy disk
Lay your
hands
on nte...
Caledonia PDL
Floppyshop
250 Oldtown Road
PO Box 273
Hilton
Aberdeen
Inverness
AB9 8SJ
IV2 4PT
0224 312 756
Denys Bennett
Goodman International
76 Mexfield Road
1 6 Conrad Close
Putney
Meir Hay Estate
London
Longton
SWI5 2RQ
Stoke-On-Trent
Makes cheques out for £ 1 and
payab
e to
ST3 ISW
Denys Bennett
LAPD
Emerald City PD
PO Box 2
PO Box 28
Heanor
Southampton
DE7S 7YP
S09 7HS
0773 6050 10 or
0703 672 577
761944
jlil Atari ST User August 1994
review
The art of cross stitching has been
around for many hundreds of
years, dating right back to seventh
Century Egypt. Its appeal has even
reached royalty and one of the most
famous examples of cross stitching is in
fact the wall tapestries created by Mary
Queen of Scots.
The idea is to create pictures and
patterns by sewing coloured thread onto
fabric. The process needs a master
pattern to be used as a guide to the
sewing and these are normally found in
various cross stitching books or maga-
zines and, of course, can be made
yourself.
The old-fashioned method of creating
these patterns is a long and laborious
task. The method involves colouring in
squares on graph paper but this obvi-
ously has many disadvantages.
For example, duplicating a section of
the pattern becomes a time-consuming
chore, and even changing a colour takes
time and trouble with an eraser.
But thankfully all this is set to change
with the aid of this cross stitching pack-
age, written by Chris Skellern. It enables
you to create your own designs via a
mouse and a computer screen. A fairly
simple but effective time-saving idea.
PATTERN
By clicking over the desired area on
the grid you can plot the stitches in
whatever design and colour you want.
Make a mistake and simply click over it
again with a different colour.
Repeating a pattern is easily achieved
by defining the area and then moving it
to where you want, enabling it to be
rotated, enlarged and reduced, for
example.
This package will run on any Atari ST
variant with preferably I Mb of memory
(although it does run on I /2Mb, 1Mb is
recommended to create very large
patterns) and you will also require a low-
res monitor or TV, and a printer that
will print graphics.
The program allows for any size of
pattern to be defined, up to a maximum
of 1 280 x 800 stitches (with a fabric that
uses a stitch count of ten stitches per
inch, this maximum size gives a total
fabric size of around 10x8 feet).
The package contains many other
useful features to make life easier, such
as different close-ups of the pattern to
enable a very precise design to be
created. The pattern can also be reduced
Getting in a knot over your
cross stitch? Does the
thought of making a
tapestry pull the wool over
your eyes? Fear not,
Tina Hackett unknots her
needles with Emerald City's
professional cross stitching
package, Easy Stitch
Cur Tool:FULL STITCH
►
®H :<
raiiaJS
The user-friendly interface makes
the whole process extremely easy
Stitched up
to see the entire area, so you can contin-
ually see what the overall effect is shap-
ing up to be. While you do this you can
save your place in the pattern.
To bring up the main menu click on
the right button. This accesses the other
main options including the stitch selec-
tion menu which contains four back
stitches, four half stitches and the normal
full cross stitch.
There are two other cross stitching
packages on the market but these differ
from Easy Stitch as they don't have the
ability to plot half and back stitches.
CREATIVE
Colours can be changed through the
appropriate colour selector. This allows
you to mix and label colours and
define symbols which can then be saved
to disk.
Easy Stitch is a great package which
takes all the hassle out of this enjoyable
pastime. It enables you to make patterns
easily and allows you to be as creative as
your imagination stretches.
The package is simple to use with a
clear option panel and easy-to-under-
stand menus. The close-up views enable
some very precise work to be carried
out and it is easy to access the overall
view to keep track of your progress.
For the professional and novice alike,
Easy Stitch is a recommended aid to
cross stitching, making the pattern -creat-
ing process painless and easy.
Cur Tool:FULL STFICH
View how i
your overall
pattern
will look
BOTTOM LINE
i>
DEFINE
COLOURS
RGB
Tfi
Burt
X " 3uwbolf
• o**, -
,/81234
567B9: )
<s>?6ftB
CDEFGH1
JKLHNOP
DRSTUvW
-* abcds
f shim
Mrtopqr I
tuvwxy j
;nrg.-n:
ESSE
QBDLUE
rnnrirmriftKttfmarj i-6ik\\?iuth
u«d ii i, v , inrzrnTTrif&smrw
Re-define colours to your personal tastes
Zoomed-in view allows you to create precise patterns
FEATURES
Many features available
make creating a pattern easy
EASE OF USE
A clear icon system and
user-friendly interface
VALUE FOR MONEY
Takes all the hassle out of
pattern making - for a very
reasonable price
Product: Easy Stitch
Supplier: Emerald City, PO BOX 28,
Southampton,
SO 18 4AA
Telephone: 0703 B72577
Price: £16.95
Configuration: Atari ST/STE/TT or Fal
with 1/SMb (1Mb
recommended] with low-res
monitor or TV and printer
[Daisy Wheel printers not
suitable]
Excel lent
Average 1
Sid
Appalling
JEwelleri^^
Average *
Bad
Appalling
Excellen^^
Average *
Bad
Appalling
Atari ST User August 1 994
Galactic may not be a household
name in the UK, but they're
one of the oldest ST compa-
nies in Germany. It all began
when the two current owners, Frank
Dirnenburg and Frank Stachowiak, met
at a company where, as students, they
were getting their compulsory practical
work experience.
Together with a third member, who is
no longer with Galactic, their task was to
do a feasibility study of "travelling sales-
man" software.
This is one of the classic computer
problems, where a route must be found
for an individual to visit several locations
in the most economical and the least
time-consuming fashion.
Their department head entrusted
them with the task because, as he put it,
they knew more about computers than
he did.
LATERAL THINKING
The result of the study was that none
of the available software which sold for
upwards of £40,000 was up to scratch.
The biggest problem was data acquisition
which on the mainframe and PC plat-
forms required a long term investment.
Instead, the team developed a much
better solution on an Atari 800
Using lateral thinking, they approached
the problem from the physics side
instead of that of a salesman. The result
was that the PC version needed all night
for a 24 location solution while Atari 800
software took only five minutes for an
80 location problem
The company in question couldn't
believe such results were possible and
undertook a six-month trial period
running all three systems - mainframe,
PC and Atari 800 - in parallel using the
same data set.
In the end, thanks to its unorthodox
algorithm, Atari won hands down but
instead of adopting the system, the
company abandoned the whole project
because they couldn't bring themselves
Frank Dirnenburg
?N
HI III
Galactic offices flying the Atari flag
Don Maple tells the remarkable story of
Galactic, from their innovative hardware roots
to their current lateral thinking in difficult
times for ST developers
to believe the results. This same narrow
minded PC-orientated mindset has
always been the bane of non-PC plat-
forms because businessmen simply
refuse to believe their eyes.
The company did make an offer, but
the Galactic team did not consider it
serious. They also suffered another
Frank D. got interested in computers when the Pet appeared on the scene. "I hung around
department stores playing around and programming them," he said.
The first computer he actually owned, in the late seventies, was a TRS-80. It was not an auspi-
cious beginning, because it suffered from all sorts of problems so Frank returned it after only a
couple of weeks and got into Basic programming on a Sharp pocket
computer.
This was then followed by an Atari 800, originally with 16k of
RAM. However, this was not enough, so he soon upgraded to 32
and then 48k.
Frank took to programming in assembler and found it quite
interesting playing with display list interrupts and the like. With the
advent of the ST he upgraded and focused on the new machine.
He's also a great strategy games fan and, as he puts it, "I wasted two
years of my life on programming the ultimate ST outer space
strategy game".
A quick and very impressive demo followed. This celestial
side-project was called Star Net. It was never finished but
even today it looks fantastic, managing 60,000 highly
complex spaceships simultaneously. The detail is amazing,
showing Frank's technical knowledge.
As an astronomy fan, he included real star charts and
actual distances. The ships movement even takes gravita-
tional forces into account.
Atari ST User August 1994
setback when the third member of the
team suddenly decided to quit.
As a replacement they got a computer
science student and Galactic was offi-
cially founded in 1986. The name was
chosen because Frank D. was a student
of astrophysics and had all sorts of star
charts around his place. The names like
"soft-something" or "hard-something" -
quite popular at the time - did not
appeal. Actually, the spiral galaxy logo
came first and the original choice was
Andromeda, but there was already a firm
with that name, so they settled for
Galactic.
MORE SPEED
This interest in astronomy extended
to computers, and the team designed a
control system for telescopes based on
the Atari 800. However, the start-up
costs for such a project were prohibitive.
In 1 986, the team also migrated to the
ST because of its promise of more
speed. The result was the first "plug and
play" memory expansion for the
machine, which was introduced in 1987.
Solutions from other compa-
nies involved soldering, but
Galactic's expansion only
needed to be plugged in.
Galactic also learned a few
valuable lessons with the
RAM expansion. It's not
enough for a product to be
technically superior, but it
feature
Frank Stachowaik
In response to a question about his first computer, Frank S. replied,
tongue firmly in cheek,"Mark I". It turns out that was a chess computer,
but his first programmable one was a Commodore pocket model.
Thanks to a very enthusiastic teacher who used to bring his own
Commodore Pet to school, Frank got a peek at the real thing. He
eventually got a Commodore 64, passing up the VIC-20 which just
didn't have enough memory. "I had a computer but no software for it,"
he said.
He then got into learning 6502 assembly, but all in theory because he
didn't actually have an assembler. One of the main reasons for buying the
C64 was the promise of the Fortran language for it - which never materi-
alised. In the end Frank switched
to the Atari 800 which he found
much easier to program because
of the available languages and
powerful graphic commands. He
then naturally progressed to
the ST.
It was one of the first Atari
520s, still without ROMs. So after loading the disk-based OS and the
original ST Basic, he was left with only I Ok of available memory.
Frank remedied this by soldering on another half a megabyte himself.
this
world
must be easy to mass produce. This
played an important part in subsequent
designs.
Another lesson they learned was in
marketing. The RAM prices at the time
were very low so the expansion was
offered at a very attractive price. In the
meantime, RAM prices rocketed five-fold
so Galactic were left with a product
costing more to produce than its list
price.
All this was reflected in another prod-
uct developed at the same time. MOD I
and later MOD 2 and MOD 3 were first
RF modulators for the ST as other "plug
and play" solutions. They also had video
player and external sound output. MOD
3 was the first all-in-one modulator that
came together with a built-in monitor
switch box.
With MOD 3 the business really took
off, and Galactic started working on
many products including contract jobs
for other companies. One such product
was the robot arm interface. This let
people connect a popular robot arm to
the ST and then control it with software.
The business was still run from home
which, according to both Franks, turned
their houses into "real chaos".
As the business took off and the firm
became well known, many individual
programmers started offering their prod-
ucts for distribution. This included the
Deep Thought chess program released in
1987. It had an opening library which
could be edited and expanded. Another
program at that time was Mars, a core
war-type program which proved quite
successful. The program is a simulated
computer where players can program
artificial viruses to fight each other.
In those pre-DTP - or more accu-
rately pre-Calamus - days, cover design
was still quite hard to accomplish and
the team were learning design as they
went along. They also started
specialising, with Frank D concen-
trating on software
Selection of
Galactic's
"greatest
hits"
while Frank S
was tackling
the hardware
and low-level programming.
U2 - no, not the rock group but an
automatic monitor switch - was the
second best-seller for Galactic. It
enabled people to connect two monitors
to an ST and then switch between them
with software which also performed the
required resolution change. This was
handy when, for example, users would
develop something on a mono monitor
but wanted to see how the finished result
looked in colour. U2 made the switching
between them quite painless.
In 1988 the firm got into sound with
the introduction of their sampler. Named
after the Volkswagen car, it was called
Volks-sampler. It was the cheapest one
around and very successful, being
followed by Volks-sampler+ and Midi Kit
software. The latter was the first
program capable of polyphonic
sample replay in conjunction
with a Midi keyboard. It also
contained a 4-track sample
sequencer.
The sound area became
quite important for Galactic,
and the next series of samplers
was released under the name
Sampler Star and then later as
Sample Star+ and finally Sample
Star Midi. These samplers went as far as
it was possible with 8-bit sound and are
still available.
DISTRIBUTOR
The offers from independent develop-
ers looking for distribution continued to
roll in at a rate of about 20 per month.
As a result Galactic released a number of
programs in 1 988. Among them were the
Retrieve database, ConnectiCad elec-
tronics design package and Top Secret,
the first real-time data encryption
program for the ST.
In the sound and graphics area there
was Soundman, a program to enter and
play back music, and the Star Designer
painting package. The latter was
Atari ST User August 1 994
feature
very successful and had over 600
functions.
Also released during this time was the
Fforth language comprising a complete
development environment.
Galactic were not only acting as a
distributor for all these programs
but they actively worked with the
authors. Usually, the program on
offer was not up to scratch, so
additional work was required before its
release.
In the meantime Galactic also devel-
oped their own new programs inhouse.
The first to be released was the original
MusicMon ST in 1990 which used to
come with a hardware add-on to get a
stereo signal out of the ST. Recently it
was updated for the Falcon and released
as MusicMon 2.
Another program developed
completely by Galactic at the same time
was Digit. Since then Galactic have been
focusing solely on their own develop-
ments and out of the original three
owners only two remain.
However, Galactic did not abandon
their hardware roots and 1990 saw the
release of the original Perfect Keys
keyboard interface.
This was the first fully
compatible replacement keyboard
system for the ST which, most impor-
tantly, did not need additional software
drivers.
Initially, it was conceived as a built-in
upgrade for standard AT keyboards, but
soon developed into an external inter-
face as well.
Although the original idea came from
outside of the company Galactic eventu-
ally took over Perfect Keys and re-devel-
oped everything from scratch.
The first problem was in obtaining the
original Atari keyboard processor, for
this chip was not only difficult to get but
also quite expensive.
EFFICIENT
One option under consideration was
to salvage the processor from the
keyboard being replaced. However, in
the meantime Atari started soldering the
chips straight to the keyboard instead of
using sockets.
The decision was therefore made in
1991 to use a totally different processor
and reprogram the keyboard system
completely. The ST keyboard is an inde-
pendent subsystem that communicates
with the computer.
The reprogrammed system was quite
efficient so there was room left over in
the processor for more code. Frank S
used this to add features not available in
the original keyboard such as Microsoft
mouse support. Today Galactic are
continuing all developments inhouse,
with the Digit series of programs heading
the list.
Initially, all of their products, including
translated manuals in English, were only
available directly from Germany.
However, recently Galactic decided to
apoint CGS Computerbild as their UK
distributor.
In addition, all programs are now
multilingual with the English language
manual available simultaneously with the
German one. One thing which makes
Galactic different is their lateral thinking,
plus a happy knack for coming up with
innovative solutions.
This is a big advantage in any
market, and particularly so in the Atari
world which values innovation
and forward thinking much more than
other, somewhat staid, traditional plat-
forms.
Galactic also echo sentiments
expressed by other German Atari
companies that in these difficult
times they all need to stick together
and co-operate more without losing
the competitive touch.
This establishes standards and focuses
the develop-ment effort as Galactic are
doing with their Digit Studio series of
programs.
Digit II Midi sneak preview
Currently under development, this new
program draws on the original Digit as well as
MusicMon and Sample Star. It also adds a
number of new features tailored specifically for
musicians. The new Digit is completely multilin-
gual and will be available simultaneously in
German and English. The program has a built-in
help system which is invoked with the right
mouse button. The pi ay I i st can now be trig-
gered through Midi and a full Midi editor is
included.
The new Digit also has a very powerful digital
synthesiser. A waveform can be cut out of the
sampler and imported into the synthesiser to
form the basis of a new sound.
A DSP module has a number of effects
including a programmable delay function which
can be set to emulate the accoustics of almost
any room. Actually, the whole DSP
effect system is programmable. A sequencer-
like system enables you to have effects kick in
and out automatically on any track and at any
time.
The whole Digit series is based on Digit II
Studio, which will form the basis of all future
releases. The program has also gone modular
but with a difference. Instead of loadable
modules they will be compiled straight into the
program. This makes it possible to create highly
customised versions so customers buy only the
modules they need.
Digit II Midi, as explained above, is fine tuned
for the musician and includes relevant modules.
Finally, Digit II AV which, is scheduled for
release in the autumn, will contain the AV
module customised for audio/video presenta-
tion. For example, whenever the commentary
track comes on the background music track will
be automatically attenuated.
Main desktop
showing available
modules as icons
digital synth [
■n
Atari ST User August 1994
New fige PDL fci^S eacd
^/ Unless otherwise stated
^^ WIIICS9 WHIG! WI3C 3IUICU
A// disks require a COLOUR system unless: 'H' - High resolution monitor required, 'A' - Any setup suitable.
FAICON 030 - AH HP DISKS | | ART & GRAPHICS j j MUSIC & MIDI
FALC2
FALC9
FALC31
FAIC35
FALC36
FAIC37
FALC52
FALC77
FALC96
FA1C103
FAIC106
FAIC107
FA1C109
FA1C110
FAIC112
FA1C113
FALC114
FA1C115
FA1C116
FALC117
FA1C119
Fokoo BooM .2, Backward 2.24 [ST mole**), Ne» Decode, Text Files, Desk Copy,
Deskpic 1 .05, Sysinlo, DC Xlrad 2.1 , Revive, SpirilFD 1 .3 |uds).
Grotesque (Excelterr?!), Gourad, Speeder, Plosmo 30 & 50, Intel + more! (demos).
Temptation! The first disk of an EXCLUSIVE pock of JPEG pktures of corneous girls.
Excellent quality pictures and the three disk pock contains no Eess man ninety
pictures! Yes 90! Disks 2 4 3 on FALC 32 S 33.
Nemack 3.1 .1 - 2 Meg memory+. Brilliant dungeons and dragons game.
RDE 3.1, Toswin 1.4, Lho 2.22, Zoo 2.1, Zip 2.3, Gem Bench 3.25, Good Backup
1 . 1 3, Boot Init 1 .1 , Ecopy 1 .5, Fantrol, Shbuf 1 .3 Mils].
Fractal Playtime, Gemvtew, Delmpaint, Gix Gif, Binoris 2.0 + more! (art).
System Audio Manager 1.1- assign samples to events, Digilape 2 demo (musk).
Emocs 3.1 1 , Everest 1 .5, KM Term, Akynik 3.5, X-Menu 1 .3, Profile 1 .43, Rezfoolec
|run RGB stuff on VGA monitor), Fullres 1 .01 , Swots, Dctock 1 .0, Fuzzy Clock 1 .1 4.
When Dreams Become Reality (RGB), Warum (RGB), Inconvex (RGB) (rjemos).
Oxyd (excellent!], Des lasers et Des Hommes (3D shoot em up), Masters of Choos
(Dungeon Master clone), Tron, Lshor Editor, Mono Kart demo, (gomes).
Falcon Right Demo ■ red time zooming demo over fractal landscape + great music.
Crime by the DNT crew, Magnet by Alphcrtech, Bobs-1 . All RGB/TV onfy. (demos).
DMB icons- two targe sets of replacement icons, Before Down screerisc-e' 1.25.
Videl • easy to use TGA viewer, Rainbow demo 0.5 - Truecrjlour art package.
Mahjong II - German version of this classic tile gome. Disk opprax 1/2 full.
Margo oemo (4meo+) - digitsed pictures of a woman modelling a skimpy bikini!
Mulli-Diotague 1 .3, Master Browse 3.2 - excellent text file viewer, T-Coche 6.0.
Octofyser 0.8 - onother 8-track tracker ported from the STE + das & source code.
Papa was a Blode Runner (4meg+) new demo by EKO, very good. RGB/TV only.
FOV Rayfrocer 2 on 2 disks, zipped & expands to nearly 5 meg! 23.50.
Moving Pixels Demo (VGA) - 4 meg+ ■ a mego-mossive demo mot requires 10
megabytes of hard drive space! From Ausrrobo, this basicdfy shows off the Folox
itself - the sort of ihirKj you'd see in a shop window, covering graphics, sound and
productivity, Vejy good. Five disks - £8.00!
ART 1 - A disk M of 23 miscellaneous utilities including viewgif 1 .2.
ART51 • Crockar!1.36- latest version of the best ST art package! 1 Megt.
ART 1 28 - Gemview - new version of this superb viewer/converter.
ART 1 57 - PAD 2.4 - English version of this high res drawing package. 1 Meg+.
ART 172 - Paintshop Plus 2.03 - A commercial quairry drawing pottage.
ART 187-196 - Temptation! Volume 1 • the first pock in a whole new range of top quality
pktures of tempting gids! Two verskxis (ptease state which) - one for STFM and
one for STE which takes odvantoge of o 32,768 colour pallete! EXCLUSIVE to
New Age PDL! Ten crammed disks at just £1 5.00!
ART 209 - Erotic Dreams slideshow 1 • all pictures of Supermodel Gndy Crawford.
ART 21 2/21 3 • POV Ravrrocer, the best raytrocer around! 2 disks. £3.50.
GAMES
' MEGA-GAMES PACK ONE! ^
No less than ten disks crammed to the brim with archived games [de-archiver and printed
instructions supplied) to squeeze on on amazing 117 games covering
board/puzzle/strategy/crcode and adventure. For o full list ask with your order or if not
ordering, send a stamp. All should run on a colour system with 51 2k and be STE compatible! You
will need about twenty disks to unarchive these disks onto! AMAZING VALUE FOR MONEY.
1X7 GAMES - JUST £14*95!
GAME 168
GAME 185
GAME 186
GAME 11
GAME 78
GAME 83
GAME 104
GAME 117
GAME 131
GAME 132
GAME 139
GAME 148
GAME 150
GAME 151
GAME 157
GAME 178
GAME 179
GAME 180
GAME 181
GAME 183
GAME 187
GAME 188
GAME 189
GAME 190
GAME 191
GAME 193
GAME 198
GAME 199
GAME 201
GAME 204
GAME 209
GAME 210
- Napoleon - a 'Risk'style game of war and strategy. 'H'.
- Oxyd 2 - the sequel to the brilliant Oxyd, much harder than the original. 'H'.
• Tefric • new Tetris type game. 'H'.
• A Question of Snooker, Pinbail, Devestator, Roll n Nudge, Ranger.
• Popeyed • a pop music game with on adult theme.
- Grandod & hie Holey Vest - superfc onimoled odvBnlure. 1 AAeg+.
- BlaH - A very nice version of Tetris. STE: ONLY.
- Fast Freddy - lovely platform game with superb graphics.
- &S5 Buttock ciTharg- sera itatarcJ from tta
- Psycho Pig - two disk platform game, very cute. £3.50.
- Grandad If - the sequel to Game 83, comes on 2 disks 1 Meg*. £3.50.
- Operation Blue Sunrise 3 • massive STAC odventure gome. 1 Meg+.
- Course Angler 1.02 -go tackle fishing on your ST!
• Sim Pig! ■ a brilliant pig farm simulation! Like Sim Gy & Sim Earth.
- B! 7 - bomb the buildings, F-l 6 ■ very good flight gome, 8 missions.
- Argon, Out, Codename Bomb, Pyramid, Disk Hunt, Sirtef, Turbo, War Jeep,
Plumber, Picker, Planet Mon, Uboat, Ypsilon - 1 3 gomes!
- Asteroid, Bong 3, Battle, Beilum, Quiz, Blaster, Chunks, Europe, Explode, Fuzzbafl,
Gems, Invaders, Megaroids, Micro, Octopod, Othello, Poc Man, Plant, Rockfdl,
Tonx, Tennis, Wall Street, Zoppy.
- Mystic Well, Deep Loir, Football, Harris Goes Skiing, Haunted House, Invaders,
Jumpsler, Roam, Sloneage Deluxe, USA, Zyxm, Firestorm.
- Utopos 1 .5 - very sficlc STE onh/ Oids/Grav (ype game, EnduiDnce • 30 game.
• Towers-ogreo1rffiwDurigeonMasterOone-irftr^t)^2disitt(lMb+)£3.50.
- Karate Champion, Hector and the Mutant Vampire Tomatoes ■ nice platform.
• Premier Mohjong II • excellent version of this superb tile game. 6GHz only.
- Cud Lee's Quest - platform game for kids, Mindmelt - roleplaying fantasy gome.
• Quest for Knowledge ■ quiz type gome set in a maze arena.
- Walls of Illusion - yet onother Dungeon Master Clone, good one though. 1 Meot.
- World Fighting Championships ■ beat up opponents from all over the world.
• Roll-it ■ ingenious puzzle gome with 40 levels, a sort of ball/tile gome. 1 meg+.
• Siajils ■ A flash STE only version of Minesweeper from the PC, good. 1 meg+.
- It's A Mug's Game - good ovenSeod view boxing game with nice graphics etc.
- Gw»toineL^s-betontheroces!Grav-gpodarcooegarnebosdonC^
- Money Mania -collect all the money from each screen, loads of nasties etc. Good.
■ Ruthless, shoot em up, Spherical - good platform game, Serendipity - good puzzler.
BUDGIE GAMES - £2.75 EACH
BUGAM 89 - Horse Racing Simulator for 1 to 5 players. Buy/sell and bet!
BUGAM104 -jeipock-OTotherfoimfolclorfiofacfossicSpeccy
BUGAM 113 - Football Tactician - formerly a £20 release! Excellent!
BUGAM 121 - Super Scramble - fake a trip to the 8-bit days with this shoot 'em up.
DEMOS
DEMO 356 - Kubo Club Culture Mix Pock 1 -6 great bits of dub music.
DEMO 355 - The Brae Demo - nice auto-running mufti-port from Diamond Design.
DEMO 351 -TneEo^ofPonkDemo-agoodSTEonrydemobyACCS.
DEMO 350 -Exhaust demo -another good STE onfy demo by ACCS, 1 meg EXACTLY!
DEMO 342 - Sid iomesDemo- dips from the films -STE only 1 meg+, 2 disks £3.50.
DEMO 335 - Reality is a Lie - a 13 screen demo by Psychomix, very good. 1 meg+.
DEMO 333 - Cemetory demo - a good digi-music demo.
DEMO 330 - Beginning of the Ending - this demo octuoliy ploys in the background of o
gome of treakour which is played with 5 balls! Hows your concentration.
SOUNDTRACKER MUSIC
TRAC129 -Four, Progfcnk, Cult 2, Cull 3, Federal Force, Bare 1 .
TRAC 1 28 -Con, Short. House, Jewel, Spassong, Celtic 6, Roppit, A-Team, Sweet Dreams.
TRAC 1 27 -More lemmings, 8oclcoopped, Psychic 1 , Boshfire, Donna 2, Ace Base, Echoing.
TRAC 1 26 ■ Scrambled Mind, 1 1 World, Wyre It, Hope Part 2, lotus Turbo 2, H-Metal.
TRAC125 - TKe looder Find, Artificial, Findly I P1a>/, Spoce Journey, SIM .
MUSC1 - Noisetracker 1.5- a pcojor sounrjrracker creator with samples & scarce.
MUSK 11 ■Arr*ggiator,Zeppdm,MDBeal, Project, Jukebox, MKS-50. 'A 1 .
MUSJC 12 - Henry Cosh Sequencer, Composer. 'A'.
MUSIC 16 -YomaloPS$790ErJrbr,irdi)c!esloaclW sample vobs.
MUSIC 22 • Alchemie Junior 22 -sequercrjv/imred-Hrne, multitasking etc 'H'.
MUSIC 23 - SoutkI r^in - r^ eoMOTmercid program, rtozarr's ^
without musical knowledge. 'If.
MUSIC24 -Oclaryser8-l!CKilrccW-STEorJy,Prot^
MUSIC 26 - PSS Utilities disk, loads of programs irvduding pofch editor, librarian etc. 'A'.
MUSK 27 - Cask) CZ sounds, 32-trock sequencer, Kcrwai Kl editor, WDI menu. 'A 1 .
MUSK 29 -KawniKtsynlh sounds. 'A'.
MUSK31 • SOX 1.0, Midi Mover, TX81z Editor, Red Drurrtning. 'A'.
MUSK 32 -Td-Sound Sequencer (Not STE), Disc Kay Hi, In control.
MUSK 34 - SOS 64, Goto Professiond, Uniplrjy, Ptoy Em 1 .0, YM21 49 Editor. 'A'.
MUSK35 ■RoWVSedesSoundr5onksforD5,D10,D20,D110crjdGRsynlhs. l A'.
MUSK 36 -Firdkrxe2.0-sccrewi^syslem.W,EKSrX3^](10t^Kkseq^lencer. , A , .
MUSK 38 - 790 Dump, ST Sound 2 • record, ploy, ccmpress did edit samples.
MUSK39 •SSProVoicr^k- F otdies(orrreRokiidGM70,TX81z,l!oksndDll0.
WORDPROCESSING & DTP
EDUCATION
WORD 1 - ST Writer Elite, EDI Text, Zop ST, ST Page, Typist, Desk Accessories. 'A'.
WORD 4 - First Word + tools, Grammar checker demo, Spell Binder, Text Filler. 'A'.
WORD 5 • Calamus Demo, no save function but you can print. 'H\
WORD8 ■ DB Writer 1.4 -very dick wordprocessor with marry features. 'H' lrWegt-.
WORD 9 • Calamus Support disk • loads of utilities for Catamus and fonts etc'H'.
WORD 1 2 - Papyrus Office Demo 2.26 - good document processor with fonts etc. 'H\
WORD 13 - Calamus S demo - fully functioning except save. 2 disks. £3.50. 'H' 1 Meg*.
BUSINESS
EDUC 1 - Kid Music, Kid Notes, Kid Piano, Kid Puzzle, Kid Graph, Rebus Writer.
EDUC 7 - Michael's Big Adventure - colourful graphics, easy to ploy. Age 8+.
EDUC 9 • Bodyshop, Computer School 2 & 3, Butterfly in the Park.
EDUC 21 - G.C.S.E. Higher Maths Grade Tutor, Franglais 3 - French Tutor.
EDUC 22 - G.C.S.E. Chemistry Tutor - all yoo need to attain grade V or above.
EDUC 23-26 - CIA World Factbook - four disks crammed with irformation on hundreds of countries
■*■ weights & meossures and a complete chemistry reference book! £6.50.
EDUC 39 - Mini Mogic Storybook - cut down version of the successful commercial packages.
EDUC 43 - Professor Clever 2 - teaches kids oged 5-1 1 about numbers, spelling and time.
BUS! 2 - Sheet 2.0, Dbase One, First Base 1 .6, Home Budget Template. 'A'.
BUS! 4 - Opus 2.2 - brilliant spreadsheet. 1 Meg+. 'A'.
BUSI 6 - Double Sentry Book Keeping System, Address Boole 'A'.
BUS, 7 - Astubank 1 . 1 at - complete borne accounts system - colour only.
BUSI 1 1 - Compact Office Management Program 2.05 - for businesses, tons of features. 'A'.
BUSI 12 - Inventory PRO - keep track of stock levels, GP Patient Care for GPs. 'H'.
BUSI 1 4 - Data Techniques 1 .41 - easy to use but powerful new shareware database system. 'A'.
FREE ST CATALOGUE
WITH
FREE SOFTWARE
FOR NEW CUSTOMERS
UPOH REQUEST
PROGRAMMING
UTILITIES & APPLICATIONS
UT1L2 - Startgem, HeorJ Start 1 .1 , DC Cksck, Disk Checker, Hard Disk Ufils, Ram Disks, Haclc 'n 1
Copy, Turtle 3.2 (HD backup), Meoaformat, Memory Test. 'A'.
LJT1L 4 - Pools 2.5, ST init 3.4, Switcher - loads programs faster, 20 DC utilities. 'A 1 .
UTIL 5 - F-Copy 3, DC Showit, Desk Manager, Disk Scon, Mono Emulator 5, Spool, DC Stuffer
(loads 32 occs), Speech Synthesiser, Mouse Accelerator. 'A 1 .
UTIL6 -James The Butler, London Phone Codes, MenuSYS, Pinheod, Super Cotenoor Bafch Startup,
Auto Sort, Postmortem, No Bombs, E-Disk, 9 Quick Utilities. 'A'.
UTIL ] 2 - Jam Packer 4, Wind-XES (Modulator control panel), Satellite 4.01 , Clock Set. 'A'.
UTIL 1 3 - German to English translator, fast Print, DC Salvage, MiNT, Moccd 3.0. 'A'.
UTIL 14 - Printer Drivers inc Canon Bubblejet, Qume Daisywheel, Brother + Epson. A 1 .
UTIL 16 - Chameleon - toads and unloads accessories without having to reboot, Sticker 3.0 |'H'),
Definitive File Selector, Super Virus Killer, Benchmark. 'A 1 .
UTIL 1 9 - Your Second Manual, Jokes, GDOS info, Bombs into + several magazines. A 1 .
UTIL 30 - Superboot 8.1 , Build Your Own Scanner, Report Writer, Disk Cleaner. 'A'.
UTIL 35 - Cheetah 1 .1 (high speed copying util). Rainbow TOS patches, Unarj 2.2. A'.
UTIL 38 - Printer Driven inc: KXP 1 ! 24, Star LC24, NEC Pinwriter, Brother, Canon, Citizen, HP
Deskjet, Oki, Qume, Taxan, Toshiba, Ritemcn, Atari. A'.
UTIL 40 - Loads of packers inc: Atomik 3.5, Automation 5, Dragon 3, Fire 2, ke 2.4, Pompey 1 .9,
Speed Packer 2, Branch Always Packer. + Mufti Depacker 1 .5. A'.
UTIL 42 ■ Intro Maker - mix pictures, sprites, scrolls and music together. Colour onfy.
UTIL45 -KoosDesk 2.01, TerraDesktop 1.36 -replccement desktops. A'.
UTIL 46 - 5TOS Shoot em up builder kit 0.6 - colour only.
UTIL 53 - TOS Version 1 .0 ■ allows you to run programs that don't run on your TOS. A'.
UTIL 54 - Message Scroller, Archiver Shells, Envelope Printer Demo, Mega Crocker. A 1 .
UTIL 57 - Revenge Dec Dispbyer 3.0, Wordfinder 3.0, Desktop.inf configurator. A'.
UTIL 58 - Career Themes inventory and Personality Tester - great fun!
UTIL 59 • Neodesk patches - upgrades 3.01 to 3.02 and 3.02 to 3.03. 'A'.
UTIL 60 - JC Label 1 .3, Jon-Dos 1 .7, Flowchart Compiler, Boot Time 2.0, Multisync, A 1 .
UBL62 -BJ Chrome 1.1, Desk Master, Grocery Lister, Silk Mouse, Auto LdocI, Blib. 'A'.
UTIL 66 - Notion X utility disk - over 150 programs! Everything you need to get you stoned!
Includes disk utils, diary, virus killer, packers etc. - highly recommended! A'.
UTIL 67 - Label CAD 2.2 - design cords, posters etc. Document files on UTIL 68. rf.
UTIL 70 - Route Finder 1 .8 - Like Autoroute - plans journeys for you, SpiritED 1 .3, Die UHR. 'A'.
UTIL 74 - Aword maker • easy to use program to create" certificates with nice fonts, borders.
UTIL 75 - Idealist 3.4 - file printer that saves up to 80% of poper used! 2 disks £3.50. A'.
UTIL 77 - Before Dawn 1 .25 - latest and biggest version of this screen saver. 2 disks £3.50.
UTIL 79 - Spectrum Games - a disk full of games to go with the emulator on Util 55. A 1 .
UTIL 80 - Terradisk ! .38 (latest), X-Jet 097, Curtains - protect your ST from snoopers. A 1 .
UTIL 82 - Beropress 2.6 - create posters, banners, gift cards, letters etc. 'H'.
UTIL 83 - Spectrum Emulator 2.07 - latest version - 2 disks + example progs. 1 meg+. £3.50.
LANG 1 /2 - Sozobon C Compiler release 2. Includes documentation, shell etc. £3.50.
LANG 5-9 - GNU Ct+ Kit ■ Hard Drive + 2.5meg required, not for novices! 5 disks £8.00.
LANG13 - Professional GEM guide - 17 chapters of tutorial with C source.
LANG 1 6 - STOS Tutorial and various Basic programs.
LANG 27 - GFA Basic v 2.0 - GFA Expert - a nice GFA Basic tutorial.
LANG 29 - STOS Tracker - adds a new set of STOS commands for Soundtracker.
LANG 36 - STOS Extensions: Missing link, Misty, Blitter, MIDI, STE, + 7 more!
LANG 37 - STOS Software pock 1 - millions (almost!) of routines etc.
LANG 41 /42 - STOS 3D - brilliant extension allowing you to program in 3D. 2 disks £3.50.
LANG 43 - A disk crammed to the brim with STOS AGs.
LANG 44 - STOS Adventure Creator 1 .03 - write your own graphic adventures. 'C.
LANG 45 - Heat 'n' Serve Sozobon C - a very easy to install version of this compiler. 'A 1 .
IANG48 -STOSExtroEjciensiwl.91a-ooysabout52newcomrnandstoSTOS.A'.
STOS 15 - The latest issue of STOSSER disk magazine, tutorials, articles, reviews etc.
BUPRO 2 - 68000 Programmers Library - hundreds of routs for games. £2.95.
BUPRO 4 - Moving Bytes 1 - more routines for screen effects, music, scrolls. £2.95.
BUPRO 1 6 • ST-68K Reference 3 - includes full data on ST internals, excellent. £2.95.
THE ST HANDBOOK • £2.50
A brilliant new magazine dedicated to PD and Shareware with stories, articles, news,
reviews, competitions, charts and lots more! Issue three is now out and this issue comes
with a free cover disk full of games and utilities. New Age PDL are official stockists of the
ST Handbook - order your copy now! A bargain at just £2.50. Please state which issue.
ACCESSORIES & COMMERCIAL
ALL ITEMS UK ONLY
Easy Text Professional DTP (1 Meg+) £35.95
Easy Text Professional Vector DP [2 Meg+ & HD & Speedo GDOS) £36.95
Introducing Atari ST Mochine Code - book & disk £1 7.95
Beginners Guide to STOS Basic - 61 8 poge ringbound manual £32.95
IMPrint, for quality mono printouts on 9 or 24 pin printers £9.95
IMPrint, same as obove but for colour printers £1 3.95
Degas Art v2.0 - computer art tutor on 2 disks £9.45
Calamus 1 .09 - mono 1 meg+ £79.95
Mr. Smart's BIG Time - 25 commercial educational programs £24.95
Family Roots - Genealogy Program £23.95
ST/STE Mouse £12.50
Quickshot Joystick £6.95
Mouse/Joystick Extension leads £4.95
10 Capacity disk box (only with order of one or more disks] £0.95
100 Capacity Disk Box £7.95
200 Capacity Disk Box £9.95
3.5 inch Drive head cleaner £3.45
ST or Falcon dust cover £3.45
Keyboard Cleaner - pock of ten wipes £3.95
Copyholders (attach to monitor to serve desk space) £3.45
Mouse house £2.95
Mouse mat £2.95
Mouse cleaning kit - 10 cleaning sticks and cleaner tissues + fluid £4.95
10 High quality blank disks £4.45
50 High quality blank disks £19.95
100 High quality blank disks with 1 00 cap disk box £41 .95
For full details on any of these
products Just give us a call!
ORDERING DETAILS:
All orders MUST be accompanied by payment. In the UK send a cheque or uncrossed
postal order made out to 'New Age PDL'. Elsewhere any form of payment in sterling
except for credit cards. Postage for PD disks as follows: UK is FREE! Europe 15p per
disk, elsewhere 50p per disk. There is no minimum order.
NEW AGE PDL (DEPT STU2 1), P.O. BOX 30, LEIGH-ON-SEA, ESSEX, 559 4AD TEL: (0702) 48069 1
Why bother?
The concept behind voice mail is similar to Email. Email is a way of sending computer files
containing written messages via the telephone line. Voice mail is the same only instead of
text the transferred information is the actual sound. This sound is digitised and stored on
the computer as files. Playing it back involves converting the computer file back into
analogue sound.
The natural question at this point is: Why bother? There are cheap analogue answering
machines out there so why tie up a computer and choke your hard disk with large files
containing digitised sound?
The answer is very simple: Flexibility! Once vocals have been digitised, the whole
concept of an answering machine takes a quantum leap. You're no longer limited by the
Spartan features of an answering machine as you enter the world of digital control. In
practical terms this means your responses can be tailored to particular people, you can
have different outgoing messages for different times of day or day of the week, you can
have the computer forward your mail by making a call all by itself... the possibilities ar
mind blowing.
Mic and speaker "thru ports" enable
you to connect other devices whilst
the T'Phone hardware is connected
Anybody who has ever seen the
Falcon in action knows that it's
a very serious multimedia
machine capable of wonderful
graphics and sound.
And since one of the many promises
of multimedia is to marry the telephone
and the computer, that's exactly what
Compo have done with their latest hard-
ware and accompanying software:
T'Phone and VoiceMail.
The interface is a small black box with
four tentacle-like cables, four sockets
and an off-hook LED indicator. The box
has its own power supply, but there is
no on/off switch.
INTERFACE
Two of the cables connect to the
Falcon's mic and speaker connectors.
This means you'll have to disconnect
what you have there and reconnect
them to the "through" sockets on the
interface itself. An ideal solution is one
of those microphone/headphone head-
sets because it will enable you to make
phone calls leaving your hands free.
The last cable connects to the Falcon's
modem port. There is no "through"
modem socket on the interface so you'll
have to switch between the two. To save
on wear and tear, you're better off with
one of those A/B boxes where you can
plug in both modem and interface,
choosing between them with a flick of
the switch.
Finally there are two Western-style
telephone sockets, one connecting to
the wall socket and the other, optionally,
to a phone. You can now connect the
interface to the mains and turn the
computer on. Bingo, full computer/tele-
phone symbiosis!
T'Phone actually consists of two
Atari ST User August 1 994
phone
With this new product from
Compo, you can turn your ST
into an incredibly versatile
answering machine
programs: a "software phone" accessory
and "software answering machine"
program.
Installation consists of copying
T_PHONE.ACC and the whole
TPHONE directory to the C partition.
Numerous samples of useful sounds are
provided but these can be customised
and copied elsewhere on your hard disk
later. In total you need about 1 .4Mb. The
minimum resolution required by the
program is 640 x 200 pixels.
The accessory sports features
normally found on a "real" phone. For
example, you can choose between pulse
and touch tone dialling and there is also
a "mute" button to play canned music - a
Stamp of approval
At this time the interface hardware is not yet
approved although this is pending. Ignoring for
the moment the fact that the whole approval
procedure is perverted - it should be up to
government regulators to prove that a device is
"guilty", rather than for companies to prove their
device's "innocence" - the procedure has just
become much easier thanks to the Maastricht
treaty.
It's no longer necessary to have a telephone
device approved in all 12 European Union coun-
tries individually. Instead, once a device has been
approved in any one country it's instantly legal in
all others.
sample of your choice. The more exotic
features let you choose any ring sound
-another sample - and you can listen to
your conversations through the
computer's speaker.
Two handy features which are missing
at this time are a phone book and a
charge counter. It would also be nice to
have automatic logging of all calls.
The main program, T_PHONE.PRG,
offers all features of a standard answer-
ing machine and more. The system
comes already configured and ready to
g°-
REMOTE ACCESS
There are several types of outgoing
messages: standard, before and after
recording. A priority message overrides
the "before" for a quick note such as
"back in a sec" without having to recon-
figure the system. Another special
message announces that the drive is full
or the recording has been explicitly
disabled.
When you call using remote access
there are three further messages: when
a remote code has been detected,
before incoming messages are replayed
The toenail sgstea is active:ST User tree
Status
Total calls: IS
Total nessages: IS
Tine regaining: 163 s
Settings
Uolwe
I Rings before picking up: |t| I l»| l
Priority notice: inaktiv »|
] Z Use internal speaker
End
VoiceMail in action awaiting a call
preview
T 1 Phone
m m a m
I m CE CE CE
i m s m m
pHHE
H Vol une pi
Hear Talk
_ E
Pulse
® louch
Pause ft)
hang up
End
not
"Soft phone" T'Phone accessory
home
Total nunber of calls:
Hunber of nessages: B
Tine renaining: 63 s
Answering nachine settings
Haxinun pause length: <*! 3 s l»l
Max, nessage length: [$j 39 s [o\
Hunber of rings until answering
if no nessage available: i$l 1 i^i
if nessage available: jc l >|
D record no nessages
3 renote inquiry active
"Soft answering machine": main T'Phone program
and when there are no messages. All of
the above outgoing messages as well as
ring sound and canned music can be
recorded directly from the settings
dialogue.
In the configuration dialogue you can
set the volume for both ring/incoming
sound and the recording threshold.
There are five different sampling
frequencies from about 8 to 21 kHz.
Even though a lower frequency may
result in some loss of quality it makes up
for it with shorter files. You can also
choose between 8 and 16-bit sample
quality. If you choose 8, the sound qual-
ity suffers but a special dynamic 8-bit
amplifier is provided to compensate for
this. Finally, if you're low on disk
memory you can limit the amount
T_PHONE uses.
Turning on the answering machine
invokes the main dialog box showing the
total number of calls, number of
messages and remaining free time in
seconds. To save disk space the program
stops recording after a pause is detected
or maximum message length is reached.
The pause can be set to 1-99 seconds
and maximum message length to 1-999
seconds.
The answering machine picks up the
phone after a variable number of rings
(1-15), depending on whether any
messages have been recorded or not. By
using different values you can save a toll
charge when calling in with remote
access to check your messages. For
example, setting no message rings to 6
and message present to 4, you can hang
up after 5 rings knowing there are no
new messages.
The most powerful feature is remote
access to "call home" and check your
messages. This only works with touch
tone phones where you press the '*'
button and then enter your code. This
gives you remote access to the program.
Finally, if you install T_PHONE.PRG as
an AUTO application and a power failure
occurs, it will sort itself out and auto-
matically start up in answering mode
when the power returns.
T'Phone is on sale in Germany and
should be available in the U.K. as soon
the manual is translated. The German
manual is brief but quite adequate as
the programs themselves are very
easy to use and pretty much self-
explanatory thanks to copious
online help.
ST User also got an exclusive
sneak preview of Compo's Voiceliail
system which will be provided as an
upgrade to T'Phone owners. The
supplied version was fully functional and
the program will be shipping shortly.
NODES
The basic concept in Compo's
VoiceMail is that of application. You
create it by building a tree of actions the
system should take. The tree is
composed of nodes. These are tailored
to caller's responses. Again, the caller
must have a touch-tone phone or one of
those hand-held tone generating units.
All applications start at the root node.
First of all the callers identify themselves
by entering a code. This approach
provides for multiple security levels and
you can also deal with people without a
distinct id i.e., general inquiries.
Depending on who is calling, the appli-
cation then branches out accordingly. At
each point there is another node with
one or more choices. The system is very
powerful and you can build very complex
trees and let the user/caller navigate
through them depending on their own
requirements.
To help you build an application, the
final program version will have a graphic
representation of the tree.
You can also vary the response
depending on the time of day or day of
the week. This is completely flexible to
allow any combination of times and days.
Once the call has been completed all
responses are stored. This includes any
messages the caller may have left as well
as keyed-in responses. For example, a
company can set up a system where the
caller can place an order simply by press-
ing telephone keys. At the end the caller
can also leave a voice message or ask to
talk to a person. The beauty of a
computerised system is that it's limited
only be user's imagination.
POWERFUL
My overall impression of the product
was that it's up to high Compo stan-
dards. The hardware is very straightfor-
ward and easy to connect. The software
is not only incredibly powerful but is
being continuously improved.
The pleasure of having your phone
system literally at your fingertips is quite
overwhelming and very liberating, particu-
larly if you connect a headset with a built-
in mic, since you can then talk and work
at your computer at the same time.
For a professional user it's worth
buying a Falcon just to run
T'Phone/VoiceMail, and yet the pricing of
the package is so attractive that even a
casual Falcon home user can easily
afford it.
The hardware interface which sits
between your phone and the Falcon
Each user's access can be customised
BOTTOM LINE
FEATURES
Both exceed the features
available on equivalent
"real" devices
EASE OF USE
Simple hardware
installation, self-explanatory
dialog boxes and online help
VALUE FOR MONEY
Includes initial hardware
interface on which future
programs will be based
Iood *
Average
Bad
Appalling
Sood *
Average
Bad
Appalling
Sood *
Average
Bad
Appalling
Product: T'Phone/VoiceMail phone
interface
Supplier: Compo, 7 Vinegar Hill,
Alconbury, Weston,
Huntington, PE17 5JA
Telephone: 0487-35 82
Price: Interface + T'Phone -
DM339 [about £1601
Interface + T'Phone +
VoiceMail 599.00 DM
Cabout £2403
Configuration: Falcon, TOS 4.01,
minimum resolution
640 x 200
Atari ST User August 1 994
Perhaps Atari missed an opportu-
nity to break into education or
perhaps they never had a real
chance given the government
support for Acorn and Research
Machines. But there are many people who
would still argue that the ST series was
the ideal machine for schools: cheap, user-
friendly, far more powerful than the BBC
and the IBM-compatibles of the mid-eight-
ies, and capable of emulating the other
major platforms when needed.
Its widespread use as a games machine
would have been an additional incentive
for many families to buy their own ST for
both educational and leisure purposes —
instead, many well intentioned parents
invested in Acorns only to see them aban-
doned by their offspring for games
consoles.
Tony Adamo is one of these people.
Like many teachers who initially bought
STs for their own use at home, he was
quick to spot their potential for classroom
use: colourful graphics, no complicated
operating system to configure, an intuitive
user interface and, of course, the highly
competitive price.
Unlike many other teachers in this posi-
tion however, he refused to accept that
the official acquisitions policy could not be
changed and stubbornly argued to be
allowed to spend some of his budget on
Atari's rather than the recommended
Research Machines boxes.
Using his own ST for demonstration
purposes, he won the argument and STs
began to find their way into George Dixon
School in the city of Birmingham where
Tony has been Head of Technology for
the past four years. Yes, Technology, not
Information Technology, for rather than
breaking the continued monopoly of the
established standards in the IT depart-
ment, the STs in George Dixon School
have carved themselves a nice little niche
in those areas where creativity and flexibil-
ity rather than pure number crunching are
■ r
.i~-
--„ find*"***" *
All over the school, references to the
role of Atari STs can be found: here a
student acknowledges the assistance of
the Mega STE on her artwork displayed
in the school's reception area
required: art and crafts, illustration, video
editing and, as you would expect, music.
The school itself is, at first sight, a
rather typical example of an inner-city
comprehensive in a multi-cultural environ-
ment. Located on a main road, with a clus-
ter of strictly utilitarian and slightly
run-down extensions around a solid
Victorian red-brick core, it covers the less
fashionable end of Edgbaston.
DEDICATED
Any prejudices the visitor may have
about such schools are immediately
dispelled upon entry through the bright,
friendly reception area: this is clearly a
school with a very strong sense of
purpose, dedicated to work and high stan-
dards of discipline and academic achieve-
ment. It is one of a small number of
schools to have opted out of Local
Education Authority control in favour of
grant-maintained status, and is now pursu-
ing Technology College status. This, I was
told, had greatly improved the school's
resources, although it was, of course.
A project to
design posters
promoting
Birmingham
as a centre of
the arts makes
heavy use of
Calligrapher's
ability to print
high-quality
display fonts
highly controversial politically.
Computers are everywhere in George
Dixon School, and the variety is unusual.
Apart from the array of Research
Machines networked in the main
computer room, IBM PCs and a few
surviving Acorn BBCs, I spotted several
Apple Macintoshes and even a
Commodore Amiga, the latter peacefully
co-existing with Atari's in the Arts and
Craft room.
It was here that both the ethos of the
school and the creative uses to which
Atari computers can be put were most
strikingly demonstrated. A small group of
students were working over a variety of
projects, the relaxed atmosphere under-
teacher
With about 800
pupils, George Dixon
School is not quite
as big as the impos-
ing Victorian
frontage and the
vast playing fields
behind it would
suggest
feature
lined by a radio playing in the background
and the complete lack of panic as I
entered the room accompanied by Tony
Adamo.
The students were only too willing to
show me examples of their Atari-assisted
work: designing multi-coloured fabric
patterns on screen before producing the
real thing; using scanned images as
templates for hand-painted illustrations;
combining such illustrations with
computer-generated lettering in the design
of posters. In one corner, a student was
hunched over a 1040 STE editing a digi-
tised video sequence while in another a
scanned image was being touched up on a
Mega STE.
The students' enthusiasm for the STs
was obvious and genuine but I could not
help thinking to myself that despite all the
ingenuity and creativity on display here,
the machines were only allowed to show a
fraction of their full power and potential
due to resource restraints.
Only the Mega STE has a hard disk, for
example, while on all the other STs the
speed and capacity of floppy disk drives
must be a limitation, for example with
The 2Mb
Mega STE is
used predom-
inantly as a
scanning
work station,
preparing
scanned
images for
printing and
incorporation
into a variety
of art and
design work
Playing around
with digitised
video images is
one of the most
popular pursuits
on the
Technology
department's STs
to school
If you thought that the only place for STs in
schools was as a topic of playground
conversation about games, think again.
Giinter Minnerup found Atari on the
curriculum in a busy inner-city comprehensive
video editing. With all respect to the
Timeworks DTP software used, I wonder
how much more could be done with
state-of-the-art packages such as Calamus
SL and DA's Layout.
Tony Adamo readily agrees. He has
recently invested in DA's Vector for more
graphics power and would dearly like the
large screens, graphics cards, expanded
memory and peripherals such as a flatbed
colour scanner and laser printer to do full
justice to the creative potential of Atari
computing. But there's always the prob-
lem of money...
The current hardware count in Tony's
department is four 1040 STEs plus one
2Mb Mega STE, with two colour and three
mono monitors, with a variety of dot
matrix and inkjet printers — some of
them capable of colour — attached.
Scanning and video frame capture and
editing are performed using an Alfa Data
monochrome hand scanner and a Vidi-ST
interface. Tony has a good working rela-
tionship with local Atari specialists Titan
Designs and is full of praise for the
support he has received from Titan's
David Encill: the next item on his shopping
list is one of Titan Design's Genlocks to
boost the video-related activities which
have proved so popular with students.
There is certainly no question of the
commitment to Atari being lessened, and
as soon as funds allow, the Falcon 030 is
likely to find a nesting place in George
Dixon School, perhaps even accompanied
byaTT.
>
!^* ^^*^ 1
V
H
i
I ■:■■'-•
ife'-
^~^s
¥
. I/
' J
Tony Adamo — no relation to the 1 960s
pop singer, he assures me — has been an
Atari user (and ST USER reader) for many
years, and took on the educational bureau-
cracy to have ST approved for use in his
school
Atari ST User August 1 994
feature
A look at the software being used
reveals some old friends. I never cease to
be amazed by the longevity of programs
which I had long thought consigned to the
digital graveyard, superseded — if the
reviews in the glossy magazines are to be
believed — by updated, more feature-
packed packages.
But everywhere I go in my quest for
Atari computers in "serious" use, I find
that old classics such as First Word Plus,
Degas Elite and Timeworks DTP have
retained their loyal band of followers. This
is particularly true in those areas where
simple routine tasks have to be performed
frequently and repetitively: users do not
want to break with old habits that have
served them well and in any case do not
need the additional features on offer.
Much of the administration of Tony's
Technology department, for example —
class lists, equipment inventories and so on
— rests upon the tried and tested abilities
of First Word and Fast Base, while old
workhorse Degas is still the favoured tool
for rough-and-ready colour sketches.
SOPHISTICATED
For other purposes, more up-to-date
(though still hardly state-of-the-art) soft-
ware is used. More sophisticated colour
work, for instance, is handled by Deluxe
Paint. The fact that this is also available on
the Commodore Amiga which shares the
Art room with the STs is an additional
bonus since files can be transferred
between the two using the IBM PC disk
format as an intermediary.
For the more technical drawings,
Megapaint with its combined bit-image and
vector capabilities is the favourite
"computer-aided design" tool. A glass-
cased display shelf in a corridor of George
Dixon School resembles a branch of the
other Dixon's with rows of stereo and
video equipment mock-ups designed using
Megapaint on the ST.
For text-based work and fancy lettering,
the quite modern (though now sadly
unsupported) Calligrapher is chosen for its
high quality printed output, although I
suspect that the newly acquired DA's
Vector will soon establish itself in this area
once its capabilities in the display font area
have been discovered.
The Alfa Data scanner came bundled
with Migraph's Touch Up image editing
software and this has proved quite
adequate for the monochrome-only images
A hard Acorn to crack
Mention the words "schools" and "computers" in one sentence, and what comes to mind? The BBC,
of course. For most of the 1980s, Acorn's odd machine held almost unchallenged sway in the educa-
tional sector, as a result of heavy promotion on television and, more importantly, a government deci-
sion to base the introduction of the nation's children to the wonders of Information Technology on
British-made computers.
All over the country, jumble sales were held to finance the acquisition of Acorn BBCs and teach-
ers struggled to devise useful programs in BBC BASIC. The few commercial software houses bother-
ing with the educational market at all wrote for the BBCs (and, to a lesser extent, the Research
Machines platform).
All this started before the IBM PC established itself as the industry standard, and before the Apple
Mac was even heard of this side of the Atlantic, so perhaps the decision to go for the somewhat
quirky yellow slab was understandable. The BBC was certainly of very solid build, being encased in
metal rather than plastic and therefore ideally suited for the rough-and-tumble of the classroom.
The only trouble was that once it had been established as the standard school computer, it proved
difficult to shift when it became clear that the real world of computing took little notice of the
Department of Education and Science.
Acorn had found themselves a nice niche market and followed up the successful BBC with the
Archimedes. It is only recently that the virtual monopoly Acorn enjoyed in the education sector has
been broken by the seemingly unstoppable spread of PC clones. Research Machines also retain a
certain following, while Apple has had limited success in their drive to sell the Macintosh to schools
and colleges.
6 Their popularity is
largely based on
the simplicity of the
user interface
9
produced by the scanner. The Technology
department covers an extremely wide
range of activities, from graphic design to
woodwork and metal bashing, and Tony
Adamo is always looking to find new appli-
cations for his versatile STs. The latest area
under investigation is electronic circuit
design, and once he has found a suitable
software package, the Atari computers will
be in even heavier demand than they
already are.
Their popularity with students is largely
based on the simplicity of the user inter-
face. The computer does not get in the
way of the job to be done, and there are
no complicated command sequences to
learn.
From the teacher's point of view, it's the
low price, the versatility and, perhaps
surprisingly, its sturdy reliability in day-to-
day use that counts for most. Despite their
somewhat flimsy and plasticy appearance,
the STs have proved to be extremely
tough in the demanding environment of a
Computers are
everywhere in
George Dixon
School
busy school.
The Music department turns out to be
inaccessible to me for the very good reason
that there is a class in progress and judging
by the intense concentration on the faces
of both pupils and teachers, it does not
seem advisable to disrupt their current
activity. I content myself with a peep
through the glass windows and catch a
glance of the department's ST surrounded
by mixing desks, amplifiers, loud speaker
boxes and a vast array of electronic
keyboards.
Tony explains that the new music
teacher is an experienced musician with a
long history of using Midi gear and sequenc-
ing software on the Atari platform: the
school makes extensive use of Notator and
will soon also acquire Cubase.
This, of course, is a common pattern: the
inclusion of a Midi interface in the original
ST design was not only a masterstroke in
terms of establishing the ST as the pace
setter in the music scene, but also intro-
duced it to many music departments in
educational institutions.
Looking for an ST in a school or college,
you would do well to begin your search in
the music department. But there is no
reason at all why Atari computers should
not have found much wider use in educa-
tion, as the George Dixon School in
Birmingham shows along with a few others
in different parts of the country.
Perhaps it is too late for such an initiative
now, but it occurs to me that a determined
push on the part of Atari for the use of the
Falcon in schools might well yield surprising
results.
Hard-pressed as most schools are in
their budgets, a special educational price for
a machine with such outstanding video and
music abilities and such a vast range of
readily available, high-quality software for all
applications might prove extremely popular.
And then I dream on, about a showcase
school being equipped by Atari and the
Atari-related software and peripheral
houses with all the latest hardware and
programs, to show just what the platform is
capable of and how favourable the price-
performance ratio still is when compared
to PCs and Macs, let alone Research
Machines...
J Atari ST User August 1 994
ANALO
ANALO
ANA
OFFICIAL ATARI REPAIR
Analogic Computers (U.K.) Ltd
Unit 6 Ashway Centre Mon-Frir9am to 6.30pm sat gam to 5pm
Elm Crescent, TEL: 081 -546-9575
Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey KT2 6HH FAX/TEL: 081 -541 -4671
•
rsKfiu
COMPUTERS • MONITORS
REPAIRS WITHOUT DIAGNOSTIC FEES 1|
520/1040 ST/STM/STF/STFM/STE
Monochrome, Colour Monitors excluding crt, lo.p.t.
*£59.95
...£59.95
Including
delivery back
by courier
service
We pick up computers for repairs and memory upgrades for Next Day delivery
to us by Courier Service for only £6.00 + VAT
MEMORY UPGRADES
RPET DEVELOPMENTS OFFICIAL XTRA RAM DELUXE INSTALLERS
520 STF/STFM to 1 Meg £59.95
520 ST/STM/STF/STFM to 2.5 Meg £79.95
520 ST/STM/STF/STFM to 4 Meg £129.95
520 STE to 1 Meg *£17.95
520 STE to 2 Meg *£59.95
520 STE to 4 Meg *£114.95
PROTAR PROFILE SERIES II HARD DRIVES
QUANTUM/MAXTOR MECHANISM WITH CACHE
.£349.95
.£449.95
Compatible with all ST/STF/STFM/STE/Mega ST/Mega STE/Falcon
Profile 50DC & 85DC £CALL Profile 170DC
Profile 120DC £299.95 Profile 240DC
• POA for Higher Range of Profile Series II and SCSI Bare Drive
GOLD AWARD WINNER PROTAR PROFILE SERIES II HARD DRIVES have features such as:
• Auto-Booting • Auto-Parking • ReaaVWrite Access • Password Privileges • Selectable Boot Partition
• DMA Thru Port • Quiet Fan • Device Number Switch • Hard Disk Management Software package
• Full Utilities package and De-bugging Software • 45 Watt PSU and all necessary wiring in place to
mount another Bare Hard Drive in elegant housing.
SCSI BARE QUANTUM HARD DRIVES
WITH CACHE
50Mb & 85Mb
£CALL
£199.95
170Mb
£249.95
120 (Maxtor) Mb
240Mb
£329.95
m\JMVA)
EfiM
ifMI
flHTIW
We shall try to beat any genuine ^ \«
advertised Falcon prices \>A^*
STE/STFM 2.06 TOS SWITCHERS! <
with Hardware Switch ^J
The only Solderless DIY Kits available
STE TOS 2.06 Roms £39.95 STE TOS Switcher + 2.06 Roms £59.95
STE TOS Switcher £39.95 STFM TOS Switcher + 2.06 Roms ...£64.95
MONITORS
fiMITfiR £129.95
including VAT
High Resolution Monochrome Monitor excluding delivery
ACCESSORIES and EMULATORS I W
STE/STFM Scart Lead £14.95 Mouse Mat £4.95
STE/STFM Lead to Philips CM8833 ll£1 4.95 10 Blank Branded Disks £9.95
Philips CM8833 Dust Cover £6.95 10 Blank Unbranded Disks £5.95
Twin Joystick/Mouse Port ext Lead..£5.95 Forget Me Clock £21.95
290 Dpi mouse £14.95 PC Speed £59.95
Dust Cover £4.95 AT Speed 8 £134.95
POWER SUPPLIES I DISK DRIVES
STFM/STE Power Supplies (Service Exchange). ...£29.95
NEW STFM/STE Power supplies E49.95
1 Meg 3.5" Internal Drive £44.95
High Density 3.5" Internal Drive £54.95
High Density 3.5" Internal Drive + Module £74.95
PRINTERS - HP31 / 51 / 550 Colour - POA
• All prices include VAT and NEXT DAY DELIVERY subject to availability
• Fixed charge for repair does not include Disk Drive Replacement & Keyboard
• All prices subject to change without notice
• We reserve the right to refuse any ST Repair
• Please allow 5 working days for cheque clearance
<Sfi
£ = !
PE
£ u
E3-
MerliN
Tel/Fax: 0453 882793
We are really thrilled at the interest you are showing in our Library.
We offer a service which we think cannot be bettered.
We ask you to select what you want on disk and so no more
unwanted programs.
All this for £1.25 inc. p&p.
PD & Shareware - £1 .25
MPD1661 - Invoice Master - An accounting package for small businesses.
MPD0796 - Planetarium - A journey through the stars with Degas pictures.
MPD0825 - Michael's Big Adventure - Adventure story for younger children.
MPD1793 - Wuzzles - Well reviewed Hangman game for children.
MPD1508 - Aliens (1 meg) - Strategy game based on these popular films.
MPD1738 - H-Mec 2 - Pacman clone for the STE.
MPD1862 - Utopos 1.5 - Demo version of this great shoot 'em up. (STE 1
meg.)
MPD0828 - International Cricket - Just the job for when rain stops play at
the Oval.
MPD0988 - Star Trek - 25th Anniversary disk magazine.
MPD1577 - Font Master - Create new fonts with this package.
MPD1912 - Dunce's Cap compilation - A collection of 4 earlier games from
this popular author.
MPD1913 - Frame of Mind - The latest Dunce's Cap game, four challenges
in this good challenge.
Stosser - The disk magazine for STOS programmers and users. All issues
available. £1.25 per issue.
Licenceware - Individually priced as shown :-
OCL001 - Dead or Alive - A text & graphic mystery with loads
of humour - not to be missed £3.00
OCL002 - Murder on the Orion Express - A space murder mystery
with lots of humour £3.00
OCL003 - Sprite works - 2 disk aid to designing games using
GFA basic £7.00
RE001 - Arthur of the Britons (1 meg) - A strategic game as
Arthur repels invaders £3.00
RE002 - Conquest (1 meg) - A variation of Populous £3.00
SS001 - Mobster City - Visit towns and find the killer £3.00
BU104 - Jetpac - Build your rocket and escape from the planet £2.75
TP001 - Zuffers - A really challenging puzzle game £3.00
SES007 - Word race (Ages 4+) - A type of hangman for the
younger child £2.95
SES009 - Math Fun (Ages 4+) - A good introduction to simple
arithmetic £2.95
Art - Artists Freehand - A very good art package £2.50
EXC1 - ProbeST v2.10 - The registered version available
exclusively from us £3.95
Issue 3 of ST Handbook the printed magazine for the PD market is now available
from us at £2.50 inc. p&p.
We stock Budgie, Powerfist, Shoestring Educational Software. Licenceware
ranges.
Authors! Send us your programs for review and inclusion in our catalogue.
Our catalogue is available free if you order other disks using the coupon below or
just send 3 x 25p stamps.
We shall be at the Atari Users shows in Bristol and London on July 30/31 helping
to run the OFFICIAL GAMES CHALLENGE organised by MERLIN/ST HANDBOOK
(in conjunction with Europress). Your chance to win a Jaguar and lots of other
goodies!! Further details available from ourselves on request.
We look forward to meeting you and giving you the chance to find out about us.
the game of the 90s will be here very soon, for
all STE (1 meg users). Don't miss it!
Please send me the following disks:
No
No Name
J No No Address
I No No
I No No
| Disk Catalogue Yes/No
■ (please send 3 x 25p stamps) . Postcode
■ I enclose cheque/P.O. for £
■ Merlin PD, 11 Grange Close, Minchinhampton, Stroud, Glos. GL6 9DE ■
GOODMAN'S
Public Domain & Shareware Service
Association of Shareware Professionals Approved
Our catalogue is not a simple ABC list of programs, but is over 220
pages of information, with screen shots and descriptions for hundreds
of disks of the very best in ST/STE & Falcon P.D. and Shareware.
I Loose Leaf Format
For Easy Updating
I Divided Into 11 Main
Reference Sections
I Complete With Card
Index Dividers
I Subscription Available For
Updates & Amendments
I Includes the STOS Source
Code Selection
Send for your copy today
Still Only
£2.95
Inclusive of UK Carriage
Discover why thousands of ST
users worldwide have, for over
eight years, chosen Goodmans for
all their Public Domain and
Shareware needs.
Order any 5 disks from the list below for
only £9.95 inclusive, and receive a copy
of our Shareware Guide FREE!!!,
Offer limited to 1 free catalogue per household
GAMES
SPECIAL INTEREST
GD2170 DAVE MUNSIE GAMES
GDI 380 MORSE CODE
GD2256 WALLS OF ILLUSION
GDI 853 GERMAN TRANSLATE 3
GD2253 TRIYAHOO
GD2187 FAMILY TREE
GD2267 BLOX
GD2251 R.A.E. TUTOR DEMO
GD2276 SNACMAN
GD2271 BATTERY EXPERT
GD2275 DCS Compilation
GD2203 ZX81 EMULATOR
GD2284 PACMAN ON 'E's
GD2205 SPECTRUM EMULATOR
GD2290 MEDIEVAL CHESS
UTILITIES
EDUCATION
GD2065 LET THEM FLY (English)
GD2184 ADVANCED FRANGLAIS
GD2120 TERRA DESK 1.39
GD2248 CLOCKTIME
GD2280 MASTER BROWSE 4.4
GD2283 ST GLOBE
GD2129 TWO IN ONE (English)
GD2176 PICTS TO PARL' 3
GD2173 ST ZIP 2.6 & LZH 3.1
GD2293 PICTS TO PARL' 4
GD2188 MOUSE KA MANIA
GD2296 ROMAN EMPIRE
GD2299 LABORANT PRO
TRACKER
GD2259 STORMTRACKER DEMO
HOME & OFFICE
GD2286 OCTALYSER STE
GD2064 ROUTE FINDER
GD2255 RECIPE BOX
GRAPHICS
GD2198 MARCEL WORD PRO
GD1347 PRINTING PRESS (English)
GD2295 HEBREW WORD PRO
GD1348 PRINTING PRESS Support
GD2291 CAL MUSIC FONT
GD2020 CRACKART
GD2035 GEMVIEW 3
STOS
GD2038 KOZMIC 4
STOSSER ISSUE 14
GD2055 KAD1NSKY
STOSSER ISSUE 15
GD2277 ART FOR KIDS DEMO
Cheques/Postal Orders payable to Goodman International
BULK DISKS
GOLDMASTER BULK
FULLY GUARANTEED
Qty
10
50
100
DD
£4.95
£19.00
£36.00
Incl. Labels
HD
£5.95
£27.50
£49.95
BRANDED DISKS
GOLDMASTER BRANDED
(Boxed in 10s)
Qty DD HD
1 Box £5.95 £7.95
5 Boxes £25.00 £37.50
10 Boxes £45.00 £69.95
Made in the UK
All prices include VAT & UK carriage
Goodmans (Dept STU)
16 Conrad Close, Meir Hay Estate, Longton,
Stoke-on-Trent ST3 1SW.
Tel: 0782 335650 Fax: 0782 316132
jj Atari ST User August 1 994
• GREAT COURTS 2
• SENSIBLE SOCCER
" LEISURE SUIT LARRY 3
• CADAVER
PLUS HINTS AND TIPS FOR
CANNON FODDER AND LEISURE
SUtt LA
Bloodhouse v s sii
shoot- em-up
previewed inside
Doubles action on a tasty coloured court
Face the awesome might of the ball machine
First of all, a confession. I do not like
tennis. I have never liked tennis. But
from what I can glean from this game,
the rules go something like this: You
have two players, or sometimes four. If you
have four players it's called "doubles", even
though it should really be called "quadruples".
There's a net in the middle, and some lines.
The players have to hit a little round thing -
apparently called a "ball" - over the net until
someone misses or everyone gets bored and
then they get some pints.
You keep doing this until you feel like some-
one is having an "advantage". And then they
win. And evetyone swaps around and does it
all again. For ever. And then everyone eats
strawberries. What a bizarre sport. And why
is it called tennis, eh?
Well, of course, I'm not really that blind to
the facts of tennis. But I have always wondered
just what sort of appeal it holds.
Tennis on the computer baffles me even
more. The few games that I have played have
been little more than a slightly sporty variation
on Arkanoid, knocking a bail backwards and
forwards until you miss. So, I'm ashamed to
say, I didn't have high expectations for Great
Courts 2.
This wasn't helped by the fact that everyone
else in the office has declared it the supreme
overlord of all games in the history of the
world, and now play it all lunch time rather
than indulging in the far more noble art of
propping up a bar. Maybe I'm missing out on
something.
Unfortunately the game is French and uses
a French keyboard configuration, so pressing
the "q" key gives you an "a", that sort of thing.
Not much of a problem, until you have to enter
the copy protection and spend hours trying to
find out which key will give you an "m". So,
I'm a bit grumpy before I've even picked up a
racquet.
RATHER SMART
The actual game then. Well, to begin with I
found it very confusing to watch. The collision
detection seems a tad dubious at times, and
you may seem to hit a ball that is miles away,
or the ball may appear to go straight through
your racquet. You can also walk over the ball
boy as if he were a cardboard cut-out. This is
just a minor graphical anomaly, but the colli-
sion detection definitely creates a rather
annoying element of blind luck. You end up
just hitting fire and hoping it works.
I also found it difficult to actually aim the
ball when returning a volley. The computer can
field skilful shots right across the court, where-
as human players are stuck with just
knocking the ball back the way
it came. You can, alleged-
ly, aim your shots by
moving the joystick as
you press fire, but I
still haven't man-
aged it without my
player standing
like a prat and
waving frantically
with the racquet
long after the ball
has rocketed past them.
Naturally, I hated my
first few games and vowed to pummel its
white-socked head into the turf with my
reviewing bile. Then I tried it
again, and quite enjoyed it.
A few two-player games
and I was starting to
doubt my former nas-
tiness. In the end, I
have to admit that it
is a rather smart lit-
tle game.
Ifs as a two-player
game that it really
comes into its own,
when you know there's
someone else on the court
PLRVER 1
SJJgS&iS! Fi " £ FORT I- FORT 4
I if]-
- V
FOP.EHftND £4 BACKHAND 54 '-O^E'V F.12-S MOLlEV 5. 64
SfifiSH €4
H
C5NC. 64 FOXMTS 35
PLAYERS NAME
DAN
t%\%
J
H
Tailor your player to suit your own tennis style. Or something technical like that The chalky white lines and the squelching of the ST pretending ifs at Wimbledon
>OST|
- either playing as your opponent or your
doubles partner - who isn't an indestructible
tennis machine. This is probably the game's
biggest stumbling block: the computer players
don't slip up often enough, and it's much
more rewarding to play a human who can at
least be outwitted.
There are options to improve your player,
or practice against one of those ball-spitting
machines. There's also a novice mode where
the computer moves your player for you,
allowing you to practice your shots, but this
reduces your role to prodding fire over and
over again. As the computer rarely misses,
this continues for ages until you get bored
and make a mistake.
Tennis. Strawberries and neat
lawns. The sport of gentlefolk.
And Atari users. "New balls
please," cries the umpire
The graphics are easy on the eye, and
despite the occasional confusion as to
whether you really missed that last ball or not,
everything is reasonably realistic. It's just
a pity that the sound is so agonisingly
bad, with unbearable squelches when the
racquet and ball meet.
Despite having no love for the game of
tennis, I did start to enjoy this after a while. I
think that practice is the key here. With perse-
verance this becomes an enjoyable little
knockabout, but the controls require a lot of
patience to master. Be prepared to be humili-
ated by the computer many times before you
If things get too tough, gang up
on the computer with a friend
realise the game's true potential.
With other human players this is probably
as good as any tennis game, against the
computer it's a teeth-grindingly annoying ego
massage for the CPU-controlled sprites. To be
honest, I won't be returning to Great Courts 2.
It may not be my cup of tea, but I can at least
recognise that for tennis fans this is a piping
hot Earl Grey with just the right amount of
milk. A good tennis game. And coming from
me, that's quite a compliment.
DANIEL WHITEHEAD
Initially very difficult
to master, this game |
can be quite fun,
especially with more
than one player. Be prepared for frus-
tration though.
Publisher >■ UbiSoft
Developer > Blue Byte
Only Great Courts
2 lets you stand
on top of the ball
boy
Price > £9.99
HD Install >■ Yes
If you're still smarting from vivid memo-
ries of that devastating San Marino win
that knocked England out of the World
Cup or still sending the hate mail to
Graham Taylor and chucking out your
"England for the World Cup" T-shirts in dis-
gust, fear not because now you can play one
of the best footy games on the ST and get to
play in your own World Cup instead via the
brilliant Sensible Soccer.
"But, Sensible Soccer doesn't feature the
World Cup." you say smugly. "Well it does
now" is my rather know-it-all reply.
Renegade, not content to publish a top
class football game and then follow it up with
what looks like a brilliant sequel (The Sensible
World of Soccer), have in the meantime (just
in case you're feeling deprived of football)
brought out a limited edition, International
version.
Put your cynicism to one side because here
you have the opportunity to update your old
version for £8. Alternatively if you've never
experienced the delights of one of the best
soccer games ever, you can buy this new edi-
tion for £19.99.
ADDITIONS
So what do you get for your money? Well,
a referee has been added, ready to brandish
those red and yellow cards should you (acci-
dentally, of course!) commit a foul. The game-
play has been tweaked but most importantly,
all the teams and fixtures from the World Cup
have been included.
Hmm, so no England then? Well, actually,
you can change the teams in the game right
down to the players' and managers' names.
So if you really want to include England, the
choice is yours...
The World Cup Championship means get-
ting your team through the various qualifying
rounds, and then to the dizzy heights of the
final. The teams are ordered into six groups
of four teams and three points are needed for
The tension reaches fever pitch, fans
fanatically cheer for their side, the action is
frantic, the competition fierce.. .and that's
just the computer games...
International
Soccer • World
a win. The top two teams from each group
plus the four best third places qualify for the
next round and the tournament continues as a
knockout right through to the end.
Also different from the original is the inclu-
sion of the Back Pass rule (the Goalkeeper
can no longer handle the ball when you pass
or kick it back to him) and the Suspensions
rule brought in for all league, cup and special
matches.
For those not familiar with the delights of
the original Sensible Soccer (if there is such a
mortal) or for those who need their memories
refreshing, I shall briefly remind you of the
joys of this soccer classic.
The game's popularity lies initially with
its intuitive controls and the fact that it's
just so instantly playable and easy to get
the hang of.
Graphically the game caused quite a
stir with Sensible Software firmly stamping
their trademark on the game in the form ol
small sprites (also found in their Cannon
Fodder and Mega Lo Mania games). These
work exceptionally well and, although they
are smaller than the sprites normally
employed in soccer games, they allow foi
some fast and frantic gameplay.
Although there aren't as many options in
Sensible Soccer as in other footy games there
are enough to tailor the
game, to your needs in some
way, from Game lei
(3,5,7 or 10 minutes)
a novel feature called
Seasonal Weather
where each
month has been
given a specific
weather pattern. These limited
options work to its advantage
in that the game is easy to
set up and quickly get into. A
nice touch is the ability to
completely change teams,
even down to which strip
they play in.
Two-player mode is where
Sensible Soccer really shines
though, and if you can find a chum
to play with, you're in for a really exciting,
fast-paced match.
The offside rule has not been included in
the game which makes for a fast, flowing
game.
The usual moves can be carried out and
are achieved easily. Sliding tackles and head-
ers can be quickly mastered through good
joystick timing and a bit of judgement. Set
pieces work in the same way as normal kicks
and throws and although the system is less
advanced than in Goal, it allows throw-ins
View how the opposition are shaping up
Work out tactics carefully to win the match
Small sprites, now trademarks of Sensible Software
m
A
zTTt
o
K
GAIV1E
Sensible
Champions
The replay mode allows you
to see your stunning goals
and the like to be taken quickly. Atmosphere
is another great aspect of Sensible Soccer
and crowd chants and cheers create the
atmosphere of the international match well.
All in all, a sufficient number of new fea-
tures have been added to warrant updating
your current version, especially if you're a
stickler for having the latest thing. The new
referee sequences are a nice touch, the
sprites seem brighter and slightly clearer and
the goalkeepers have been enhanced.
BRILLIANT
Sensible Soccer is undoubtedly a brilliant
game. Put with The Sensible World of
Soccer being released later this year,
promising all the playabilily of the original
plus a huge management angle, this begs
the question of whether you should buy it
now or wait and see. It's a tough choice!
If you've not got Sensible Soccer then it
could well be worth investing in and if you
already own a copy and really do want to
update your version then go for it. For a soc-
cer game that is easy to get into and for a
quick "kick-about" Sensible Soccer can't be
With the Team Editor you can put
England back into the World Cup
beaten but if you want something with
a bit more depth and a few more options
then maybe waiting to see what else
is on the market would be a more viable
option.
So now my refereeing is over for the day,
I shall hang up my footy boots, and get
ready to watch the start of the World Cup
(this was written back in June /know!). And
don't worry, it's only another four years to
wait until the next World Cup
TINA HACKETT
# This new edition of Sensible Soccer is avail-
able now and existing owners can upgrade by
sending their original disk I and a cheque or
postal order lor £8.00 payable to the 'Sensible
Soccer Offer' to:
The Sensible Soccer Offer
UnitB3,
Edison Road,
St Ives,
Huntingdon,
Combs, PE174LF
Moil Order Hotline for all
Customer Queries : 0480 498889.
And here's the new referee feature
The World Cup Tournament is yours to compete in
I
DIFFICULTY
INSTABILITY
B
Classic football fiTilll
game. Brilliant. l» J I Ivi.i
addictive action that r*A'awl'l
every gamesplayer
! should have in their collection.
Publisher >• Mindscape/Rene.
Developer > Sensible Software
Disks ► 2
Price ► £19.99
HD Install >• No
Size > 1 meg
Sli-UER CO
CaUERH
£,EWE
TUNNEL
The start of the adventure and Karadoc h stuck with a broken-down boat
Pulling that lever Drill ghre our dwarf hero i
i to a whole host of
M
i
f I asked you to name the most influen-
tial and admired set of games designers
in the ST world then I hope you'd reply
"The Bitmap Brothers". The Bitmaps are
perhaps the closest the computer games wodd
have got to pop stars. The shade-wearing and
ultra hip "brothers" that aren't actually broth-
ers have delighted and entertained ST games
fans ever since the ST's introduction to the
computer industry.
Almost every game they have touched has
turned into an instant classic. If games like
Xenon, Speedball, Xenon 2, Speedball 2,
Gods, Magic Pockets and The Chaos Engine
aren't in your collection, then I'm ashamed of
you.
Each one of these products has shined so
bright in the graphics, sound, payability and
addiction departments that you'd have to
wear shades (like the Bitmaps] just to play the
damn things.
Admittedly all of the aforementioned
games have either been platformers or shoot-
Ah the joys of wandering around a dark, dank and
damp dungeon. This Bitmap Brothers adventuring
classic hits the ST at a superb knockdown budget price
'em-ups, but there has been one product from
the Bitmaps that was totally different from all
its stable mates and its name was Cadaver.
I'm happy to announce that this classic RPG
has just been re-released courtesy of US Gold
and their budget label Kixx XL Cadaver, for
those of you who don't know, is an isometric
3D arcade adventure.
You play the part of Karadoc the dwarf
and your mission in life is to explore the dun-
geons and corridors of Castle Wulf, interacting
with hundreds of objects, people, monsters
and puzzles. Karadoc' s ultimate objective is to
kill the necromancer Dianos, and as is the tra-
dition with bounty hunters, whatever you find
on your quest is yours. Finders keepers, losers
weepers!
Karadoc's skills include the ability to walk,
jump, climb stairs, cast spells and fight mon-
sters. By pressing a key you can change
between moving in eight directions and mov-
ing in four, according to your own personal
preference. There are three major modes of
controlling the dwarf and his actions: basic
movement, interacting with objects and using
Karadoc's rucksack.
When wandering around the castle,
Karadoc's movement is controlled via the joy-
stick. Pressing the fire button when he is hold-
ing nothing will make him jump. When clutch-
ing a weapon or a spell, the fire button casts
the item.
Objects are manipulated using the icons
available and they vary according to the item
you are holding [see box for more details).
Obviously you can't drink a spell or cast a
potion.
There are two ways of using the rucksack:
you can either view individual items or take a
look at the rucksack as a whole. A quick stab
of the spacebar brings up a window which
shows the last item in your rucksack which
Karadoc manipulated or picked up. The items
can be scrolled through using the joystick.
Pressing the Return key allows you to view
the entire contents of your rucksack. Initially,
you can hold up to a maximum of 32 objects,
16 of which are displayed on screen at once.
Karadoc has to deal with the biggest spider from
hell, just to get a rune. I don't know, the things
adventurers will do these days!
Investigating those sacks will bring
Karadoc into a fight with a, err...
maggot from the pits of hell
Walking into that fungi will only do damage to
Karadoc, although you can quite happily jump
into that worm without too much trouble
August 1994
mi
ft ■
1 -**■ /
Now how on earth do I get past that wall? Answers on a postcard to "I
used to be a lot better at Cadaver when it first came out"
The other 16 objects can be scrolled through rent health status, how many experience
using the joystick. points you've gained and the percentage of
i
find your personal log book. This tells you of Karadoc's adventure is automatically
how much gold you have collected, your cur- drawn as you explore the castle and its dun-
Opening the
chest will
important
geons. It shows the room you are currently in
and the rooms you have explored.
There are three types of spell Karadoc can
use: spells which fire a shot, room spells that
— — — , — _,
Potions can be found throughout the game
and provide a wide variety of effects, not all
of which are good. Most potions and spells
are labelled, but have no explanation of
what they do, so you'll have to experiment a
bit.
One nice little touch is that saving your
position costs gold, the higher the level, the
greater the charge. So this means that you
have to look in every room and in every
nook and cranny because otherwise you
might not have enough treasure when it
comes to saving your position at a vitally
important moment.
Cadaver is a very in-depth adventure
-_
LOT
'->i
CHEST
'V-'WBf
CaUEFN
?^*~l
complete this
- ,-r
Aha, behind
that rock lies
a helmet.
Unfortunately
I haven't a
clue where
and how I
game and one that is going to take you a
long rime to complete. Even if you breeze
through the quest there is still more adventur-
ing to be done courtesy of the free data disk
"The Pay-off" which is lumped in with the
budget package.
As with all Bitmap Brothers games the
graphics in Cadaver look absolutely gor-
geous and will have you dribbling from start
to finish. The only gripe I have is that the
actual Karadoc sprite and animation isn't
that good and could've been a lot better.
That small insignificant whinge aside,
there isn't a lot I can fault Cadaver on. The
puzzles range from easy to incredibly hard
and the game does get harder as it progress-
es. It has that nice addiction factor that keeps
you coming back for more and more.
You do get a hell of a package for only
£15 and ST owners should run down to their
local game store to buy it immediately. To
sum up, Cadaver looks brilliant, plays like a
dream, and lasts a lot longer than your
average piece of software.
JONATHAN MADDOCK
Anything you can do. Icon do better
A run-down of some of the main icons that can be used in Cadaver
E
Icon Function
Hold Allows you to hold and unhold objects
Switch Allows Karadoc to operate switches
Open Open and closes containers such as chests
Pull Allows you to move an item
Eat Allows Karadoc to eat any food
Icon Function
Joystick Returns Karadoc to movement control
Search Gives information about an object
Take Takes an object and places it in rucksack
Drop Drops an object
Drink Allows you to drink liquid from an object
Read Allows you to read books and parchments
VISION
AUDIO
m
Cadaver is just
packed to the brim
with some of the
most beautiful
graphics you will ever see on your
machine and is addictive and
playable as hell itself. I give my
heartiest of recommendations.
Publisher >- Kixx XL
Developer > The Bitmap Brothers
Disks >- 3
Price > £14.99
HD Install >• No "
Size >• * meg
August 1994
ACTION
The world's most famous lounge
lizard is back and he's still looking
for love in all the wrong places!
[LED
MM
Leisure Suit Larry is perhaps one of the
ST's best loved adventure characters
and his loveless quests have entertained
ST gamers for a good few years now.
Though aimed at the "adult" market, the Larry
series of games have proved very popular with
the teenage gamesplayer - it must be some-
thing to do with the trials and tribulations of
puberty!
The Larry games weren't and aren't that
rude, but they stili contain that subtle blend of
innuendo and nakedness that kids like to love.
Grown-ups looking for a truly "adult" game will
be severely disappointed.
The first two Larry adventures do look awful-
ly dated when compared to the modern day
adventure and the programmers of the Larry
series must have noticed this fact when they
Mot a man to rest on his laurels, Larry
dons his white suit in true Superman
phone box-style and beads off still
looking for love
updated the third game in the series with a
brand new look.
Before you start the game proper you must
answer a series of five questions to determine
what level you play the adventure at and
whether you're old enough to play, five correct
answers will allow you to play on the filthiest
level while no correct answers will mean load-
ing the game again.
Larry was created by Sierra, an American
software house and the questions tend to centre
around their culture and history, so even if
you're old enough, you might not get all the
questions right. Very annoying, but once
you've passed this little test, it's on towards the
adventures of Mr Laffer.
Larry has lost his job, his-woman and he's
back on the lust trail. Donning his white suit
and his cheap aftershave, Larry ventures off
around the island of Nontoonyt looking for
love. The biggest difference between Larry 3
and its predecessors is that this time you don't
just control Larry.
This time you swap roles between Larry and
a woman called Passionate Patti and naturally
your final objective is to geflhese two lovebirds
together. The game, for those who know noth-
ing, is controlled via a point 'n' dick interface
but, unfortunately, you still have to type in
certain commands.
There is no question that this third Larry
adventure looks a lot better than any of its fore-
runners. The sprites have been suitably
improved and the "close ups" are a lot more
detailed. With this in mind you'd be forgiven
for thinking that Larry 3 is the best game in the
series, but you couldn't be further from the
truth.
The game is so slow it totally skewers any
chance of being playable. Larry literally daw-
dles across the screen at a rate that a snail
would be ashamed of. Nor does he move as
fluently as he should and seems to keep getting
stuck behind objects at every given opportuni-
ty. This is so annoying that it's guaranteed to
irritate any adventurer who plays it.
Unlike the first two Larry exploits, there is a
hell of a lot of disk swapping to be done if you
don't have the luxury of a hard drive. As far as
puzzles go, Larry 3 isn't thjjnosf taxing
adventure in the world, but normal operations
within the game seem to be far more difficult
to solve than the actual puzzles.
Larry 3 is certainly not the worst adventure
I've ever played, but it was ruined for me by
the slow speed. I'm sure there are ST adven-
turers out there who will enjoy this third Larry
Laffer episode especially at this budget price,
but for first-time adventurers I would suggest
you look elsewhere.
JONATHAN MADDOCK
Leisure Suit Larry 3
could have been the
best game in the
series since it shines
in the graphics department, a con-
spicuous failing of its predecessors.
But it suffers badly in the payability
stakes and the slow speed of the
game makes it highly frustrating for
even the most experienced and hardy
adventurer.
The start of Larry's adventure and looking
through those binoculars will lead to some
cheap (and we mean cheap) thrills
Poor Larry. Ob returning I
our hero finds his wife in the
Jacuzzi with her lesbian lover!
Publisher > Kixx XL
Developer >• Dinamic
Disks >• i
Price >• £14.99
HD Install > Yes
Size >• % meg
*w^\£mlM©^^M
Let's start with the story, shall we? Meet
the villain, Professor Schaumund, a
nasty piece of work who pokes small
animals with sharp sticks, laughs at
pensioners' haircuts and when he belches it
smells of compost. Oh, and he invades galax-
ies as well. But you knew that already — he is
an evil professor after all.
And just to make sure that nobody gets him
under the Trade Descriptions Act he's also ful-
filled the final criteria of evil professordom and
started harassing Princess Voi Levi. As if having
a name like that wasn't bad enough, you have
to be tormented by a fat boffin who smells of
compost. Sheesh.
Anyway, Schaumund's scurrilous minions
are already moving in on the peace-loving folk
of the galaxy, disguised as meteors. A bit of a
logic leap there melhinks, but stay with me on
this one. They're floating about in space pre-
tending to be bits of rock, which is obviously a
thoroughly wanton and aggresive thing to do.
You, being the hero of course, decide that
enough is enough and all this space-bound
mineral impersonation has gone too far. So
you build a spaceship and paint it in nice
colours. Then, for want of anything more con-
structive to do, you fly into space to shoot the
bogus asteroids. This sounds like a cue for a
game to me. And, by gum, it chuffin' well is.
So, a bit of history then. Stardust came out
on the Amiga at the end of 1 993, courtesy of
a group of groovy foreign coders with the
fear-inducing moniker Bloodhouse. The game
was basically an updated Asteroids-style
blaster (hence the rather inexplicable meteor
disguises], but it packed such a graphical
punch that it caused several less than sturdy
people to topple over in sheer excitement.
It also included several into-the-screen lev-
els that were so smooth you thought they might
very well slide off the monitor and leave an
unsightly puddle on the carpet. It updated the
Asteroids gameplay with the inclusion of
weapon power-ups, end-of-level baddies, spe-
cial maze-like sub-games and ray-traced
asteroids.
Naturally the idea of an ST ver-
sion was slim, and hoots of mani-
acal laughter echoed around
the grimy stone walls when-
ever the notion was men-
tioned. Until a sparkling
wraith-like figure descended from on high and
spoke unto us.
"Yea", it said, "Cast out thy unbelievers, for
Stardust shall come to the Atari and lead the
people of ST to the promised land. For they are
the chosen ones. Sorted." Can't argue with evi-
dence like that, can you?
Stardust should be something of a lifesaver
when it hits the ST. If it's even half as technically
impressive as the Amiga version then it will
serve as a fine reminder of just how powerful
the ST can be when used properly.
Next month, a more in-depth look at how
the ST version will look and play, the first ST
screens and, straight from the horse's mouth,
programmers Bloodhouse talk about how
they pulled off the cleverest bit of computer
conjuring ever.
OK, this is the Amiga version, first ST screens next month'
Asteroids enters the '90s
with an almighty howl and a
big pair of boots. It
should be quite huge.
So claims Daniel
Whitehead in part
one of a special
preview. And he
should know.
an otter
Masses of gorgeous
weapons can be yours
Use the force Luke,
I've lost Artoo etc
Woh, check out the bonus
game, like mellow
It's not all asteroids
you know
Starting out
The game begins as you stand looking at
the beautiful view of Nontoonyt atop Vista
Point. Look in the left binoculars for a
"nice" view. You might also want to take a
look at that wonderful plaque put there in
your honour. Read it. Stop looking at the
plaque, and go left, and you'll be in the
right of the jungle.
A pointing finger will show you your
way home. Go home, and get dumped by
your wife. Then go back to the jungle and
to the lower right where you should find
another jungle area. Walk in a little bit and
you'll change back to the Larry we all
know and love. Go back home, look in the
mailbox and get the credit card. Go back
to the first jungle, then type in "Look
Granadilla" and be sure to pick up the
piece of wood.
Go right again to the second jungle
screen, then go to the lower right. A point-
ing finger will point you to your job. Go
there, walk into the offices to the left, and
have a nice "chat" with your boss. Walk
back to the screen with the fountain in it,
and then go down to the beach. A girl
should be lying there.
Look at her and talk to her, then give
her the card. She'll show you her apprecia-
tion! You'll get the knife she buys from the
vendor. Leave and go to the fountain
screen again. Now, sharpen the knife on
the steps to the casino (on the right).
Carve the wood into the "statue." Go to
the top left, back into the second jungle
screen. Go up to the top right hand comer
(you have to go around some bushes, and
make sure you exit to the right, not the top)
and you should be in the screen with Chip
'N' Dales in it. Cut the grass, and then
weave it into a skirt. Now go to the right
hand comer and exit right.
Go into the comedy hut and talk to the
guys in the back left corner. Then go and
sit in the chair in the middle table. Watch
the entire routine, up to the duck impres-
sion because you'll get extra bonus points!
How to get the
beach girl's $20
Go back down to the fountain screen. Go
right and move behind the steps.
This should put you in a screen with the
cabana. Go to the left cubicle and put on the
skirt. Head back to the beach and sell the
statue to the girl who is lying there.
Now you have the $20! Go back down
and get her towel. Move Larry to the cabana
and change into your leisure suit. While
you're there, pick up the soap on a rope
that's on the fountain which is in turn on the
left side of the cabana. Go back to the
beach and throw your towel to get a nice
tan. But don't do it for too long otherwise
you'll bum!
Re-released on budget and reviewed in
this very issue of ST Action, Larry
is back and we're not
far behind with the
complete guide to
Sierra's superb
lewd-and-crude
graphic adventure
How to watch
the dance show
Go into the casino (up the steps) and
go straight for two screens, then left
until you can't go straight anymore.
Look in the mirror (for some extra
points) then go left into the theatre
lounge room. Give your pass to the
ticket man.
He'll ask you some questions ab
it, the answers to which can be found
in the manual. Now tip the man with
the $20 to get your front row seat. Stand in the lounge until Cherri Tart comes out to use the
phone. Talk to her until she tells you she wants land. Give her your land and she'll tell you to
come back when you get the deed.
Exit the casino, go left to the second jungle
screen and then go to the upper right-hand
corner. When you get to that corner, go up
rather than right and you'll find yourself in
front of the Law Offices of Dewey, Cheatem,
and Howe.
Walk on in and ask for a divorce. You'll
be directed to Ms Cheatem who'll talk to you
for a while and then send you out of the
office. As you leave she'll tell you about the
deed. Leave the office, then enter again, and
Roger, the clerk will give the deed.
How to get the
Fat City card
Go back to Cherri and give her the deed.
She too will show her appreciation! Then,
when appropriate, start to dance. Go back
to the Law Office and pay for the divorce
(give the money to Roger). You must be
wearing the silly get-up for this. Suzi
Cheatem will show her appreciation!
She'll tell you about the divorce papers,
then leave the office and come back in. Pick
up the papers from Roger. Look at the
papers and you'll notice that they contain a
Fat City membership keycard.
Of 4000
Leisure Suit Larry 3
The start of
the quest -
and for
some cheap
thrills try
looking
through the
binoculars!
What to do at Fat City
Go to the theatre lounge where you first met Cherri, and open the
backstage door. Change back into that dapper suit of Larry's. Leave
the casino and head back to the second jungle screen (one screen
left of the fountain) and go to the lower left.
You should find yourself at the whale. Go into its mouth and go
into the left door by using the keycard. Look on the back of the card
you found, and you'll see three places which can be found in your
game manual. Remember the page numbers of each of these places
in order for this is trie combination to your locker.
Your locker is, of course, locker No.69 and it can be found by
typing in "find locker" until you are "burning hot!" Open the locker
with the combination. Change into the sweats. Close the locker and
go to the top right door and workout on all four stations. Do twelve
of each and you'll find that Larry has turned into a stud.
Go back to your locker, unlock it, and remove your sweats.
Close the locker again and go to the top left door. Take a shower
(using the soap!) and when you leave, dry yourself off with the
towel. Go back to the locker, use the deodorant and put on your
suit. Close the locker. Leave the locker room and enter the top door
with your keycard. Go up to Bambi and look at her. Talk to Bambi,
(fieri help with her video problem. She too will show her apprecia-
tion! For extra points, go to the first jungle screen and go down and
left. There should be a TV set, a newspaper on a table and a bench.
Pick up the newspaper and read it.
How to get off
of cliff No.2
First thing you need to do is get that wine bottle
off the tray. Go behind the screen and put on
your panties, bra, pantyhose, and dress. Head
off to the piano lounge (where you met Larry),
get the magic marker and the money off the
piano.
Go to the cabana screen and fill the bottle
full of water from the fountain. Now go to Chip
'N' Dales. Pay the man at the door, walk
inside, sit down in the chair, and enjoy the
show. When Dale comes by after the show, call
him and talk to him. Ask him for help, but he
doesn't really give you any. Get up and leave.
Go to the right of the comedy hut screen,
then to the upper right near the bamboo. You
should find yourself near a cliff. Go into the
bamboo at the upper left and you'll find your-
self in a bamboo maze.
How to make
Patti happy
Go to the Chip 'N' Dales screen and go into the
cave on the left. Pick up some of the flowers
near the edge of the cliff. Make a lei out of
them. Go back into the casino, go up as far as
you can, and this time go right instead of left.
Go right past the mirror to the piano lounge
where Patti should be. Look at her, talk to her,
show your divorce papers, give her the lei, and
type in "go to room".
Beating the pig
Carefully make your way up, but stop when
the pig gets in your way. Remove your bra
and put the coconuts in them, then swing
your bra and hit the pig with the coconuts.
Now the area is clear, go up to the river.
How to cross the river
When you get to the river, swim in a lihie and look where the water is moving. Type in
"look in bushes" and pick up the log. Push the log out into the water and climb on it.
Save your game now, as you'll be playing a mini-arcade game.
Dodge the rocks and stuff
as they come by, saving peri-
odically whenever you get
After the hose breaks you should find your-
self on a mini-cliff with some marijuana
growing on it. Take the marijuana, and
make a rope out of it. Climb up the tree and
■jj get the coconuts. Climb down. Throw the
rope at the rock on the other side and tie
your end to the tree.
You won't get across without a harness,
so rip your dress and then climb the rope to
the other side. Carefully make your way
across the cliff and exit on the upper left-
hand side.
some distance. Finally, you
should make it out alive.
Once out of danger you'll
bump into the lesbian ama-
zons! They'll take you and put
you in a cage with your lover
Larry. Talk to Larry and have a
good look around. When
you've finished, draw a door
with your magic marker. Now
get out of the cage.
J
fill it- - *-an
How to get the
bottle of wine
Patti wants some wine. Go to the comedy
hut and there should be a bottle on the
middle table. Get it, go back into the casi-
no, but when you get in, go right instead of
forward. Press the button on the elevator
and when inside press the nine button.
Pour the wine, and this time she'll really
show her appreciation!
How to get off cliff No.1
When you exit, get as close as you can to the edge of the stream and drink. Go up
and type "remove pantyhose" and you'll receivel 5 points. Get close to that big rock
at the top of the screen, then tie the hose to the rock and you'll be able to lower your-
self down the cliff.
The final section
You've now fallen out of the game and find
yourself back in the Sierra back lot. Exit to
your right and then go to the right again.
When you get to the anti-grav machine, sim-
ply shut it off when you are upside-down near
the switch. Then go to the right and watch the
ending to the game!
Larry wanders over to his house to find his wife sharing
a bath with the woman from next-door. Ooer!
Welcome once more to the delinitive
guide to all things with cannons and
fodder. Part four concludes the guide
and works out much better value for
money than buying the book
CANN
MISSION 8. PHASE 1
Jungle warfare is the next mission in our campaign men. Hidden around the jungle in South
America are lots of army operatives that need to be wiped out.
The enemy have learnt from their past mistakes and are now taking more caution than ever
before. They have set more booby traps and increased the capacity of the barracks to some
extent. Your overall mission is to find 'em and drill 'em. Details are as follows.
The chopper will fly you in close to the nest. Move with stealth through the jungle avoiding
point one. Inside this bush is a single soldier who will attempt to shoot you with a bazooka
shell. Fortunately for us he doesn't quite know how to use such hardware and will no doubt kill
himself in the process, but be sure not to leave any of your men near the explosion, as you well
know it can kill you.
Area two contains a group of three crack soldiers who will keep watch until they have spot-
ted any enemy forces. Then two of them will rush forward and attempt to thwart your plans
while the third will raise the alarm. V
So move quickly and kill them and attack the guard at point three before destroying the huts
beyond at location five.
Take care near point four. The bridges have been tampered with and have a multitude of
hidden mines and spiked traps. If this area has been successfully defeated you can move up to
point six to wipe out the remains of the enemy forces in this area.
Although tempting, area seven contains a large amount of missiles to use against the enemy,
if you choose to collect these before completing the other objectives you'll raise the alarm too
early and enemy forces will be overwhelming for your much smaller group.
Although this phase appears to be easy I can tell you now that you have never had it so
hard. Report to HQ when this mission phase is completed.
MISSION 8, PHASE 2
iMMi'j&JW*
'k^JZ
ib$8
m
''\*A
im
&*
rnM»
. .rt, . .... \ s . ,"■
i?i
,'n f
U\..-
■V.-.'i
?P29>
70ST
Enemy buildings are now reinforced with larger coatings of
concrete and steel girders. Our rockets are unable to penetrate
the outer skins so we need to employ bigger firepower.
Unfortunately we can't carry that sort of weaponry around
with us. Thankfully the enemy has provided such weaponry,
and if s just a case of getting to use it. . '
From the start point, shoot the guard at the top of the near-
est building then make the squad retreat behind the wrecked
buildings. From here send one man out to dispose of the
guards at points two, three and four and use any rockets that
you need but make sure that you save at least one.
Move towards bunker five but stay close to the shore line.
Your aim here is to get rid of the guard at point five. His job is
to stop anyone crossing the river and he will do so with his
missiles.
The same applies to the man at checkpoint six. Things
aren't easy due to the number of enemy bunkers and there'll
be a lot of soldiers running around so make sure that you
keep your distance.
In area seven there are a few guards to take care of. Try to
do your best and kill them all, but under no circumstance enter
area eight without disposing of these guards first.
All that should remain now ore the enemy bunkers and the
hundreds of soldiers that they emit. Use the turret gun to
destroy these bunkers in area eight.
Make sure that when you enter it no soldier is on the
island with you as he will throw a grenade and ruin your
chances of success. The chopper will be waiting on standby for
MISSION 8, PHASE 4
Things get a little relaxed now or so it seems. The enemy have more secret concrete bunkers in
the forests which need to be taken out for good.
Once again we have to rely on the enemy to supply us with sufficient firepower to complete
the job. And the same problem applies: getting to use it in the first place.
From the starting point, move slowly down the map towards point one. Here you'll spy an
enemy jeep. Use a grenade to remove this vehicle.
Then down to point two. Arm your rockets and get ready to remove the bazooka lookout sit-
uated on top of the bunker's roof. This done, move out to point three where a small hut is locat-
ed. This must also be demolished but watch out for the small patrol covering this area.
At point four you'll find a civilian hut that needs to be destroyed and the missile guard that
protects it. If any civilians are found roaming these parts they too must be eradicated.
To the north near the hut is a jeep ready and waiting just for you. You must climb into the
jeep and drive it away from the building before attempting to blow the wooden structure apart.
Call the rest of your team over to the jeep or drive the jeep to the rest of your party and get
them all to go inside the vehicle.
Drive back down the map and get them to drive the jeep over the cliff face at point six.
When the jeep lands safely in the water get everyone out as quickly as possible before the jeep
explodes. Then take your team down to the civilian hut at location seven and destroy everyone
and everything.
Move the squad back up to location eight and commandeer the large gun to help you blow
apart the reinforced bunkers surrounding it.
Quick reflexes will be required for this delicate operation. Take care not blow yourselves up
in the frantic confusion. With all the bunkers destroyed, there only leaves one hut at location
nine to destroy, a pretty simple task to complete considering what you've already done.
MISSION 8, PHASE 3
Moving deeper into the jungle, we con see the enemy has a very impressive camp in the
south-western comer of this mop. The huts are much larger than before and they hold
at least four times as many men.
To add to the growing problem of the enemy and their resources, they have set up
loads of traps for our brave lads. Points one to four are by far the worst.
The first three are invisible spear traps, if you study the darker areas a little closer
you'll just about see them, try to move around them.
At point four you'll see a small white thing in the grass. This is an enemy mine and
must be de-activated if you are to pass through safely.
At point five you'll encounter your first enemy. Just shoot him from your side of the
river bank then swim across to his side before proceeding to guards six and seven.
When attacking the collection of buildings in area eight you'll need as many men as
you can muster. The enemy will be made frantic by your presence and will stop at noth-
ing to destroy you.
You can guarantee they'll hurl grenades and attack from all sides, so keep your men
on the move and destroy the huts' doors as quickly as possible.
It is very unlikely that all your men will survive this as it is incredibly dangerous. We
hope that you all return safely.
ST 71
.m n J
co
^^M^S?
Subscribing to Atari ST User means
you reap all the benefits of the
exclusive treatment you'll receive as
a subscriber, and you get to choose
one of these great free gifts as well
m
i So, you're wondering,
\ what exactly is this
*\ exclusive treatment?
' \ It's a whole range of
-4 things that ensure
you get your copy of
Atari ST User with-
out any fuss or
j effort. Asa
subscriber there
are no worries about remem-
bering when the next issue is on sale. You can watch your
favourite soap or have a lie in, because you won't be scram-
bling down to the newsagents. You'll be snug and warm,
content in the knowledge that you are part of the select,
because your copy of Atari ST User is reserved for you
personally. Before the masses have even thought about
their monthly expedition to the shops you'll have had your
copy for a few days, delivered direct to your door, postage
free.
Not only do you already know
the latest news and gossip, but
ATARI ST USER SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM
Sou*
'&°»
Choose either a 12 issue or a
quarterly subscription, which w///
start form the earliest possible issue
• I would like the following 12 issue subscription:
New Renewal
□ 9452 fJ9453 UK Subscription £39.95
EU Subscription £54.95
Rest Of World Subscription* £74.95
Canada/USA** $98
□ 9454 [J9455
□ 9456 [J 9457
□ □
• I wish to pay by:
Cheque/Eurocheque/Postal Order payable to Europress Enterprise Ltd
□ Credit Card
Expiry Date
/
Card No.
• Tick which option you want:
9475 □ Premier Manager 2
9363 □ Two free issues and a magazine binder
9376 □ Alpha Data Mega Mouse and Logic 3 mouse mat
9377 □ Mortimer
* Gifts are not available for Rest of World subscribers
** Canada & USA subscribers send to: Europress (North America), Unit 14, Bysham Drive, Woodstock,
Ontario, NT4 1P1, Canada. Tel: 519-539-0200, Fax:519-539-9725
I I Tick this box if you do not wish to receive promotional material from other companies
Send this form to: Europress Direct, FREEPOST,
Ellesmere Port L65 3EA. (No stamp needed if posted in UK.)
# I would like a UK quarterly direct debit ongoing subscription
9458 D £8.49 per quarter (Complete the form below)
Quarterly Direct Debit Instruction
AUTHORITY TO YOUR BANK/BUILDING SOCIETY TO PAY DIRECT DEBITS
Name of bank/building society...
Name of account..
Your account no.
Sort code
Signature(s)..
Date
FOR OFFICE USE ONLY
Originator's Identification No. ;8 |5 1 |4| 1 |2i
Ref No
Your instructions to the bank/building society:
• I instruct you to pay Direct Debits from my
account at the request of Europress Ltd.
• The amounts are variable and may
be debited on various dates.
• No acknowledgement required.
• I understand that Europress may change
the amounts and dates only after giving
me prior notice.
• I will inform the bank/building society in
writing if I wish to cancel this instruction.
• I understand that if any Direct Debit is paid
which breaks the terms of the instruction, the
bank/ building society will make a refund.
Bank/building society may decline to accept
instructions to pay Direct Debit from some
types of accounts.
• Deliver my magazine to:
Name (Mr/Mrs/Miss /Ms)
Add ress
Postcode-
Daytime phone no-
y^y jjjjj phk m yyjjjjj^
Choose one of these free gifts
> Two extra issues
plus an elegant
Atari ST User binder
STUSEFt
Subscribe to Atari ST User and we'll send you a high quality, exclu-
sive Atari ST User magazine binder. These specially produced binders
will keep your magazines in mint condition, providing an excellent
reference point, as well as keeping them stored away neatly. As well as
this useful binder you also get two extra magazines. Your 1 2 issue
order is extended up to 14 issues.
and Logic 3 Mouse Mat
The well known Alpha Data Mega Mouse
has ultra high 260dpi resolution with
opto-mechanical encoder. The reliable
micro-switch buttons provide effortless
finger-tip operation. You can have all this
and a high quality Logic 3 mouse mat
absolutely free when you subscribe.
iijp^.
SUBSCRIPTION HOTLINE FOR CARD HOLDERS
Tel: 05 1-357 12751
Fax: 05 1 -357 28131
MORTIMER
Mortimer is a multi-functional accessory for
all Atari STs. It is a sophisticated program
that has all these functions in one:
text editor
printer spooler
• keyboard macros
virus guard
• flexible RAM disk
snapshot
• disk functions
pocket calculator
.!.-■ .! :■:■ :■::■■ ■'.'■■A
■ ^l^iloitkkta* iSSS*
I .fJfljjC
k~: ^fvt'^ nnmE ' '''**' ■ ?''"^'' *** n»
j n eje Ep iee :EE
tzrr be n»r? HmT
turn ^
"H-
» PREMIER $ 0l
MANAGER 2 **«•*>
Premier Manager provided a I pDCMicDrn
strategy football manage- \ZT"
ment game with an accessi-
ble and enjoyable game
style. Now Premier Manager
2 kicks off with a net full of
extra features to test your
skill and nerve to snapping
point as you seek to build the club and team of
your dreams.
VWiWij
Atari ST User August 1 994 f J
Midi network games
After playing the Midi Maze II game which
appeared on the February '93 issue of Atari ST
User, I found myself interested in doing some-
thing similar.
However, I'm finding it difficult to get to
grips with the code structure of such a multi-
computer gaming environment as well as infor-
mation on how best to access the Midi ports in
such a program. Can you help?
F. Adams, York
I'm afraid I turned up zilch in terms of info
on this matter. So,l'm going to throw this
open to anyone out there who has any
experience with writing such multi-
computer games.
Come on people, send in your answers
and offers for help and I'll pass them on to
Mr Adams
Games transfer
I have recently bought a I040STE with 1Mb
and I am very pleased with it. Your magazine is
very good and the Advice Service which you
offer is great.
I also own an Atari 800XL and still have a lot
of software on cassette for this machine. Is
there any way to transfer the software from
the cassette to disk and use them on my ST, or
is the language different?
Also, I would like to buy a second disk drive
for my STE. Would this be a simple matter of
just connecting it to my computer? If so, could
you recommend a particular type?
P Willis, Cleveland
Good to hear you're pleased with the mag. I
too still have an 800XL in the loft some-
where. In fact, it's probably in the same
box as my even older Atari 400 and its
massive 48k memory!
I'm afraid you can't simply transfer
your 800XL software to an ST disk and use
them. They would need to be re-written to
work with the ST's different hardware.
Attaching a second drive to your STE
couldn't be simpler. Just plug the drive into
the socket marked Floppy Disk and away
you go.
When shopping around, be sure to ask
for a double sided drive. There are still
single sided ones around which are not
really supported these days.
Nearly all Atari dealers, such as
Ladbroke Computing, System Solutions,
Gasteiner, Power Computing and
Silica Systems, to name a few, stock good
quality external drives for between £45
and £60. Check out the adverts in this
issue.
There are also various models of
drive which feature extra hardware,
such as Gasteiner's Power Drive,
which contains the Blitz hardware. This
hardware significantly speeds up disk
copying.
Get DAT backed up
I have a rather large SCSI hard drive (250Mb)
connected to my 1040 STE via The Link host
adapter. I have been using this set-up for
nearly a year now and have not yet had a
problem with data loss (he says frantically
looking for a wooden surface to touch).
After speaking to a friend who has suffered
a 50Mb hard disk crash, my paranoia has finally
got the better of me and I decided to splash
out on a backup device to protect my valuable
data.
The one I bought is a second hand SCSI
DAT tape, which was put together by a
computer engineer. The actual DAT mecha-
nism is by Wang .
I now require appropriate software that will
enable me to use the DAT drive to back up
my hard drive. Can you suggest some suitable
software for this?
■R. Stannon, Scotland
In this very issue we have a review of
Diamond Back 3 from HiSoft. I doubt if
you can find any other software which is as
easy to use and as fast as this package.
One of its major features is the support for
Advice
Amstrad connection
After much experimentation, I have
managed to get an Amstrad CM 1 4
stereo colour monitor (supplied
with Amstrad's 464 Plus computer)
working with my STE and would like
to share this knowledge with your
readers.
May I also take this opportunity
to say what a great mag Atari ST User
is. I have been reading it since issue
5 and have always found it entertain-
ing and informative. Keep up the
good work.
A Brown, Herts
What a nice man. Many thanks
for your Amstrad info, Mr Brown.
I get frequent letters requiring
information on how to connect
foreign monitors to the ST.
Remember, if anyone out there
has hints and tips as good as this,
write in and share them with us.
many forms of backup devices, such as
floppy disks, tape streamers and DAT
drives.
Check out the review and if you think it
fits the bill, give HiSoft a call on 0525
7/8/8/
CD-ROM connection
I have a SCSI CD-ROM which I wish to
connect to my 1 040STE computer. Is it possi-
ble to do this and if so, what extras will I need?
P. Bo/7ey. Glasgow
The first thing you will need is ICD's The
Link, available from Ladbroke Computing,
or System Solutions' Translator. Both
are hardware SCSI adapters that allow you
to connect SCSI devices to the hard
disk DMA port on the bock of your
computer.
Once you have the CD-ROM connect-
ed, you will also need suitable software
drivers to handle the communication
between your computer and the CD-ROM
hardware.
MetaDOS is driver software from Atari
currently available as public domain.
However, it's not exactly stable and has
some trouble reading files, causing them to
appear corrupted after having been copied
to a hard or floppy disk.
ExtenDOS, from System Solutions, is an
extension of MetaDOS and is much more
reliable. You can contact them on 0753
8/88/6.
Atari ST User August 1 994
advice
Save that screen
I use an Atari I040STE which I use for word
processing and DTP. I have a number of screen
savers to protect my monitor from "burn-in"
but they are very boring.
While visiting a friend, he showed me the
screen savers available for his PC. I was
amazed. Many were shareware packages and
some were commercial, costing up to £50!
They make the screen savers for the ST
look dire with their animations and even digi-
tised sounds.
I know the ST can't compete with a high
resolution 256 colour VGA or SVGA screen,
but I would think that the ST can handle
animation and digitised sound.
Are there are screen savers for the ST
which do more than simply change the colour
of the entire screen?
L Stevens, Southampton
You'll be pleased to know that there are
screen savers which offer more than were
colour changes.
Before Dawn, written by Arne Rudolph,
and Darklord, by Steve Pedler, are both
fine examples of modular screen savers.
memory is fundamentally different.
The Falcon's 256 colour mode is arranged
as bit-planes. As you are familiar with such
a structure on the ST, you will realise that
unlike a 16 colour ST screen mode, which
has 4 bit-planes, the Falcon's 2S6 colour
mode has 8.
The PC's screen is stored in memory in a
byte-per-pixel format, this means that
if the PC's screen is stored in memory start-
ing at address 8000, then the colour of the
first pixel is contained within address
8000, the second pixel's colour is contained
in 8001, the third in 8002 and so on.
Alost games programmers will probably
tell you that the bit-plane method is messy
to code for and is slower to directly manipu-
late compared to the PC's much simpler
screen structure.
It is also a fact that the majority (if not
all) PC games access the screen in this byte-
per-pixel manner. A PC emulator would
therefore have to constantly convert such
screen accesses made by a game running
under the emulator, to the Falcon's bit-
plane method.
Obviously, this would drastically slow
down the game, probably to a point where
They are modular because the actual screen
effects are program modules which are
loaded into the main screen saver applica-
tion. This allows people to write their own
modules, which can do more complex things
than just change screen colours.
Of course, you must realise that the price
for this is that they take up more memory
than a simple screen saver.
Both Darklord and Before Dawn come
with example modules with more and more
being written by third parties.
Check out your local PD library for
details on how to get hold of them — and
remember, if you like them, be sure to send
off the requested registration fee to the
author to encourage them to continue
development.
it's just not worth the effort of creating an
emulator to handle games.
Emulators are mostly used to run serious
applications, such as word processors and
spreadsheets, which don't require fast
screen updates.
Before potential Falcon games program-
mers start to have nightmares thinking
about the implications of a bit-plane struc-
ture for the Falcon's TrueColour mode,
which means 16 bit-planes to contend with,
fret not.
TrueColour screens are stored much the
same as the PC's byte-per-pixel methods,
except that it uses words-per-pixel due to
the 32000 plus colours available.
Auto virus protection
Sometimes when I load a disk of PD programs
given to me by my friend I get the message
"Hello !! I am your personal boot sector
Guardian" on the screen.
Strangely though, there is nothing in the
AUTO folder, where I thought programs that
automatically run are stored.
Where does this strange program come
from, and is it really protecting me from a
virus?
M. Price, Wiltshire
Don't bother trying to find that file on the
disk. It's a bootsector program. An ST
formatted floppy disk is divided into tracks
and sectors. There are usually 80 tracks
with each track usually containing 9
sectors. I say usually as there are PD
formatting utilities which allow you to
have 82 tracks with 1 sectors.
The first sector in the first track is known
as the Bootsector. This special area usually
just contains information about the disk's
structure.
However, you can also store a very small
program in the Bootsector which the ST
will realise is a
program and will run
automatically.
Commercial games
usually have a loader
program stored here
which loads and runs
the game Unfor-
tunately, some very sad
and lonely lamers
HMSBHHBEIbk. decided that it would
be fun to write
programs which copy
themselves to other
disks and eventually destroy programs on
the disk by erasing the entire bootsector.
Hence the virus program was born.
The message you are getting is
created by FastCopy Pro, a commercial
copying utility written by Martin
Backschat.
If you get the Guardian message, you
are supposed to be free of a virus, due to
the fact that the Guardian sits in the only
place a virus can be.
However, virus coders are a sly lot and it
wouldn't take much for a virus to display
the same message as the Guardian
program, while actually copying itself to
other disks and eventually trashing every-
thing. So beware.
PC games please
I have been told that because Falcon graphics
can provide the same screen mode as the PC's
VGA mode (256 colours in 640 X 400). It
should be possible to play PC games on the
Falcon using a PC emulator.
I'm not sure about this as I'm not familiar
with how screens are stored in memory on the
PC and Falcon in 256 colour mode.
I'm familiar with the ST's "bit-plane" method
of storing screens, but does the Falcon use this
when in 256 colour mode? Please can you
clarify?
F. Sounders, Herts
Athough the Falcon's 256 colour mode looks
the same as a PC's, their structure in
Got a problem?
Are you at the point of taking an axe to your ST? Do you want to pulverise your
printer? Well just count to ten and relax. Then, jot down the problems you are
having, along with a detailed description of your setup.
Include information on the type of ST you have, the TOS version (if known), what
peripherals are attached and any extra hardware that lurks inside your computer
(accelerators, graphics cards and so on) and I'll do my very best to come up with a
solution.
For those who have had problems and overcome them, chances are that
someone somewhere is having the same problems and would benefit from your
advice.
So get in print and send any tips or suggestions that other users may find helpful
to: Darren Evans, Advice Service, Atari ST User, Europa House, Adlington Park,
Macclesfield SKI (MNP
Atari ST User August 1 994
Don't miss
stJnDD (S [Llmmm^
s
r '
jj(unns(i][TCE(MJ [bay
j
-fJJz
& ATARI ST
Come along to the
only Atari specific
shows in the
country. You'll find
all the leading ST
publishers and
dealers there,
offering all sorts of
bargains. This is your
golden opportunity to
buy virtually
anything for your ST,
with expert advice
to hand.
Organised by David Encil,
Neal O'nions and Ray Cross
at each show i yoOC her w
BACK ISSUES
If you've been following a series and
missed the last one, or you were looking
forward fo the next issue but can't find it at
the newsagents, you'll know just how
disappointing it is to miss out on an issue.
Well, never fear! You'll find various
back issues on sale at bargain prices
at the show.
SPECIAL SHOW
SUBSCRIPTION OFFER
Guarantee your copies of the best
Atari magazines by taking advantage
of the special show subscription offer,
only available to visitors to the shows.
It'll only take a few minutes to fill in a
form and you'll have every issue
delivered postage free to your home.
THE LATEST MAGAZINES
Save yourself a trip down
to the newsagents and make a
beeline for the Go Direct stand
instead. You'll be able to pick up
the latest issues of Atari ST User
and Atari ST Review at the
shows, before they will be on
sale in the shops!
© K>Si MORE INFOI A
Who's there
The leading ST publishers and
dealers attending include:
• Atari Workshop - renowned as the ST hardware
specialists. They've promised to bring along
enough hard drives so that they don't sell
out this time! Also, see Cubase Audio here.
• Best Electronics - all the way from the US of A!
Mr Atari, Brad Koda, will have every spare part
imaginable along with some delightful Atari
memorabilia.
• Black Scorpion - your first chance to see their
latest product. Dextrous.
• Calamus User - all your questions about the
best-selling Atari DTP package answered.
• Caspian Software - play the new Rock 'n' Roll
Clams game!
• CGS Computerbild - Digital Arts' number one
international distributor! DA's Layout, DA's
Vector Pro, DA's Picture and all the rest...
• Compo Software - the biggest Atari specialist
apart from Atari itself. Compo expect to have
That's Write 3, That's Address 2, MusiCom 2,
TrakCom, NeoDesk 4 and lots more - including
upgrades for your computer carried out on the
spot!
• Furst - see the revolutionary SMS2 operating
system first hand.
• Go Direct - get back issues and the latest
copies of the magazines here along with all of
ST Review's cover disk support products. You
can even meet ST User's editor!
• Goodman International and Merlin PD, two of
the top Atari public domain libraries.
• HiSoft - check out Papyrus, Truelmage and the
MasterPhone Falcon voice mail package at the
London Show.
• JCA Europe - see Calamus and the stunning
new Falcon-specific Rainbow art program at
London.
• Titan Designs - it's rumoured that there will be
stocks of the Graffiti Genlock available...
WIN A JAGUAR
Yes, net only will you get the
chance to see and play en Atari's
mind-blowing new games console,
you'll also get the chance
to win one!
Everyone who comes to either the
London or Bristol Show will be able
to enter for free! All you have to
do is play a game of Obsession, a
brand-new STe-only pinball game.
The highest score at the end of the
two days will be presented with a
fabulous Jaguar!
Co-sponsored by ST Handbook
and Europress Publications, this
really is the offer of the year - and
the perfect reason to come to
the shows.
HOW TO GET THERE
BRISTOL SHOW - HILTON
INTERNATIONAL HOTEL (0272
260041), REDCLIFFE WAY,
BRISTOL, SATURDAY JULY 30,
1 0AM TO 5PM.
Exit the M4 at Junction 1 9 and
take the M32 to Bristol
• Turn left at the last set of traffic
lights on the M32
• Under the underpass, carry
straight on until you reach the
flyover
• Do not go over the flyover but
keep it to your right
• Bear right immediately after the
flyover
• Follow the road round and the
hotel is just on your left
LONDON SHOW - NOVOTEL
(081-741 1555), 1 SHORTLANDS,
HAMMERSMITH, WEST LONDON,
SUNDAY JULY 31, 10AM TO 5PM.
• Underground - go to
Hammersmith via the
Metropolitan, District or
Piccadilly lines and follow signs
for Novotel.
• Road - aim for Hammersmith
Broadway and follow signs for
Novotel. Integral car park holds
250 cars.
Tickets cost £5, £3 for entry after 2pm
Children under 16 are free when
accompanied by an adult
Atari ST computers free if being
brought to the Compo stand for
TION PHONE
7
mis2
With sample CDs all the rage at
the moment, Phil Morse looks
at one which offers something
a little different. Plus the latest
ST music news and regulars
Sample CDs are the current
buzz-word in computer
music. The basic idea is
this: You take a CD con-
taining lots of recordings, or sam-
ples, of your favourite instruments
and the like. You then transfer
them into a sampler - a box
designed to store them - and using
your computer, replay them. It's a
bit like having some new sounds
added to your synthesiser.
But what if you can't afford the
£ 1 000 or so it costs to buy a sam-
pler? Or if you don't even own a
Midi keyboard? Is this new way of
quickly distributing up-to-the-
minute sounds lost to you?
Not if you think laterally - and
own an STE or a Falcon. And you
don't even have to be a serious,
equipment-owning musician.
Because by sampling from one of
these CDs into your computer's
memory and saving the samples to
hard or floppy disk from there,
you can plug your STE or Falcon
into a hi-fi and compose things
using its internal sound channels.
Latest products
• It has been confirmed that Heavenly Music's new Desktop Music
Division will supply complete music packages, including their own prod-
ucts in them for free! Top names featured include Yamaha, Roland and
BCK.
The company have also expanded their highly acclaimed series of sam-
ple data disks for the Atari ST, and can for the first time accept credit
cards. Their number is 0255 434217.
9 Computers and music come together in the Interactive City - the sub-
title for this year's week-long In The City music conference in
Manchester.
Antony Wilson, ex-Factory Records boss, said: "We want to bring
together all the key players - the hardware and software
manufacturers and the international music industry.
The conference takes place in September, and a brochure can be
obtained by phoning 08 1 -747 9080.
• Do you find your instruments sometimes suffer from crackly
leads, dodgy connectors or badly soldered plugs? Maybe it's worth
investing in the real thing — quality leads and connectors built
to last. VDC Cable Art offer the very best, and this year they've expand-
ed their audio and video cable range immensely. Contact VDC on
071-284 1444.
From
You'll need a sampler program -
something like Stereo Master will
do - and a reasonable amount of
memory (2Mb upwards is ideal). A
hard drive would be nice, but is
not essential. You'll also need a
sample CD.
Music company The Hollywood
Edge are specialists in sound
effects. Instead of giving you discs
full of instrument sounds, they
concern themselves with stuff like
— and I quote —"helicopter blade
thwop steady", "phone rings (bell-
type and slimline)" and "35mm still
camera, multiple shots". Sound
effects like these, all packed
on to one CD and samplable into
your STE/Falcon, have uses far
wider than music.
I'm sure you can see where
all three of the above could fit
into computer games, and they
could also be used to create far
more impressive demos than
many, at least in the sound
department.
The Hollywood Edge specialise
exclusively in such sound effects
and have a massive library
available. So next time
you're after the sound AKA!
of an apple being bit-
ten or chewed, or a (J
bullet ricocheting, why
not check out one of
their sample CDs?
• Hollywood Edge
CDs are distributed
exclusively in the UK
and Ireland by Josef
Weinberger Ltd, tel
071-255 1829.
This demo CD from The Hollywood Edge contains over 100 ready-to-use samples
A to Z of modern music jargon
acid house - A type of dance music dominated by the use of a now
• obsolete Roland bass-line synth, the TB-303, which lent the music
its characteristic squelchy, spiky instrument sound.
analogue - Analogue more and more means non-digital. That means
cassette or reel-to-reel tapes as opposed to DAT, old 70s key-
boards against modern equivalents. While digital systems convert
any sounds into a series of Is and 0s (binary), analogue systems of
any kind never do this. The debate over which way of represent-
ing musical data is the best is still raging.
auto-accompaniment - A common feature on home-use electronic
keyboards and organs, and with composition-aiding software,
auto-accompaniment describes the feature whereby the computer
"plays" the parts of other musicians while you take care of playing
just one part. There are two Midi file formats - and I. Format
files contain all the Midi data in one homogenous track. This for-
mat is most often used with stand-alone Midi data players as the
device has less work to do - it simply reads the stream of Midi
data and plays it. Format I files have each Midi channel on a sepa-
rate track. This is most convenient for sequencer users who may
want to edit the parts. Some Midi data players can read format I
files, but not all. You can prepare a file in your sequencer for
playing on a data player as long as your sequencer can save
format files. If not, you need a format conversion utility of which
there are two - Hands On's Zero Gen (£14.95) and Heavenly
Music's MidiScope (£12.95). Both do the job simply and without
fuss.
•J Atari ST User August 1 994
jets to jungles
• m
The Akai S 1 000: A sampler is useful, but not
essential in order to get into sample CDs
I am considering buying an ST and some music software in order to
write songs for my band. My question is: How do you play live with an
ST and your songs on disk, as it were?
How do you make sure you won't be kept waiting around in-
between songs while you load up files and stuff? Is it feasible to use a
computer to play live? Please help!
John Stewart, Carlisle
liw
Phew! The simple answer to all
of your questions is yes, it is all pos-
sible. Many companies have invent-
ed software and hardware to
help.
You can get little screens so
you don't need a monitor
with you; special disk-based
sequencers so you don't even
need your ST; and complex
software such as Mind Over
Matter's Slave Driver which
allows a stunning (and stunningly
complicated) amount of control over
the music your ST is handling, while it is
actually playing it.
But to avoid the most practical problem of having everything
ready to shoot into the next song as the last one finishes requires less
time, effort and money than specialised hardware or ultra-complex
software.
Most modern ST sequencing packages have a multi-play or "juke-
box" facility which loads up everything needed for the next song while
the current one is playing. That way, all you have to do is press a but-
ton and the next song will start immediately.
Send your queries, complaints or
praise to Phil Morse do
Atari ST User at
Europress Publications,
Europa House, Adimgton Park,
Macclesfield
SKI0 4NP
IBM Filt Hod Iraili HIH Options Icrttns"
IIHTITLEMTS
HI81:81,88IIIS888»:|8I
em
J lit. 8
iHiiTTi
The Juke Box screen
in Gajits' Breakthru
sequencer. Songs
can be played in any
order, missed out,
rearranged - and all
in real-time
Advanced Media Group
AMG's Matthew Wilkinson is a busy man. Running his hi-tech music
company very much as a one-man band, he does everything from mas-
tering CDs on £30,000-worth of equipment to answering the telephone
and designing artwork for his product packaging!
The firm started seven years ago, and although they are probably best
known today for their sample CDs, this side of the business didn't begin
until around five years ago.
"We started off with one guy doing a sound card for the Korg M I
synth," said Matthew, "and we were getting them sold for us in
America. Then the US company we were dealing with started selling
CDs, and we started selling them for them in the UK."
Nowadays AMG do much more than just sell sample CDs - Matthew
commissions what he wants, helps in sound selection, and then edits the
noises before producing a master CD to send off to the duplicators.
Vince Clarke - one half of supremely successful synth-pop duo
Erasure and ex-Yazoo and Depeche Mode member — is one artist who
agreed to make a sample CD with Matthew. In this case Matthew spent
a few days in an Amsterdam studio with Vince, got all the sounds onto
DAT, got back to AMG's HQ (Matthew's packed apartment!), and after
a bit more liason with Mr Clarke, ended up with a CD full of noises the
music world was gagging to get hold of.
"We don't really know whether our CDs are going to be any good
until they're finished and being bought!" said Matthew. So how many
can a company such as AMG expect to sell of each new title?
"We sell more and more of each new one we release," offers an enig-
matic Matthew,"but 2,000 is a lot for a sample CD. If there were two or
three of us we'd all be poor, but because there's just me..."
AMG have recently taken what at first seems like a retrospective
move, in leaving behing a 3,000 square foot barn containing a full studio
for the relative austerity of Matthew's flat."We use professional studios
now when we need to," offers Matthew, "and a massive barn with a stu-
dio seemed a little excessive for answering the telephone in."
So, streamlined and looking at what's coming out in the near future?
Well, there's a new Norman Cook and Coldcut CD coming up, a rocky
CD from Tim Farrriss of INXS, and Gota - Simply Red's drummer —
also has a CD coming out. We've got more releases planned than we
actually have on sale!" he
added. |\\ -W /
• Contact AMG on 0252
717333.
AMG
Mow!
The H\lSound
Producer Series
(h-t, an hour of Smart,
Hi! sample* from-
nieczahk
Pascal Gabriel
Coldcut
AMG s catalogue
and demo CD
Atari ST User August 1994
old disks
BACK
ISSUES
These days ST Action is incorporated into Atari ST User.
However, if you missed any of the original issues and their
great CoverDisks, when ST Action existed in its own right,
here's your chance to buy them. But hurry - stocks are
limited.
ST Action Back Issues
Please send me:
□ October 1993 £2.50
□ September 1993 £2.50
□ June 1993 £2.50
□ May 1993 £2.50
Name(Mr/Mrs/Ms) .
Address
□ April 1993 £2.50
□ March 1993 £2.50
□ February 1993 £2.50
□ January 1993 £2.50
Postcode Daytime tel no
Please allow 14 days for delivery. Make cheques payable to Europress Enterprise Ltd.
Send to Europa House. Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP
Or phone Vicky on 0625 878888 (10am - 1pm only)
quoting your credit card details.
□ Tick this box 'if you do not wish to receive promotional material trom other companies
ZOOL!
ISSUE: OCTOBER 1993
ON THE DISK: Zool demo and Hunchy
2010; an amazing full game, plus STA's
disk mag
ISSUE: MAY 1993
ON THE DISK: Exclusive levels from
Critters (1Mb only), and Super
Caldron, plus issue 3 of STA's disk mag.
A&h,
e ach
incl
ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 1993
ON THE DISK: H-Mec. groovy pacman
clone, and a zany collection of quality PD
for you, plus issue seven of STA's disk mag
ISSUE: APRIL 1993
ON THE DISK: Fast food. Easter
eggstravaganza, plus; issue 2 of STA's disk
mag; Freestyle!
ISSUE: FEBRUARY 1993
ON THE DISK: Three explosive full games.
plus a playable demo of the Codemasters'
smash, Robin Hood
ISSUE: JUNE 1993
ON THE DISK: Critters (1Mb only), a full
PD-style game; the Obscure Naturalist, a
fantastic text based adventure, plus: issue
4 of STA's disk mag.
ISSUE: MARCH 1993
ON THE DISK: Un-sensible Soccer -
fruit meets football in this superb demo:
plus Bonus, your very own pet. and
issue one of STA's disk mag. Freestyle!
ISSUE: JANUARY 1993
ON THE DISK: Fully playable demo of
Electronic Arts' platform stunner. Risky
Woods
Don't risk missing your
atafu
Please reserve a copy of Atari ST User
magazine every month until
further notice.
I I I will collect
] I would like it delivered to my home
Name
Address
Postcode .
Hand this order form to your
local friendly newsagent
TODAY and he'll make sure
you never miss out!
And a message from us to your newsagent: Atari ST User should
be available from your local wholesaler. If not, contact the
Circulation Department at Europress on 0625 878888.
[Til Atari ST User August 1 994
. '■ ■'■■■'-
One of the best things
about Atari computers
is that they are truly
"plug-in-and-go": the
operating system doesn't have to
be loaded in from disk as it is built
into the ROM chip and there is no
complicated configuration or instal-
lation procedure to go through.
Just unpack your box, connect
all leads and cables, switch on and
the friendly GEM desktop is there
to greet you. Run your application
program and off you go!
So who needs utilities? Strictly
speaking, nobody. It is quite possi-
ble to write an entire shelfload of
novels, design a glossy magazine,
keep track of your accounts or
play lots of games without ever
touching anything that could be
described as a utility.
Between them, TOS and GEM
will handle all the routine tasks
encountered in a computing life:
basic housekeeping (formatting
disks, copying files), displaying text
and controlling peripherals such as
printers, modems and a variety of
POPULARITY
Yet everybody uses them. I have
still to encounter an ST, TT or
Falcon owner without utility soft-
ware of some description: disk for-
matters and copiers, replacement
file selectors and alternative desk-
tops, picture and text viewers,
screen accelerators, archivers, edi-
tors and ramdisks.
The list is almost endless and
includes polished commercial pack-
ages alongside a vast army of public
domain hacks and shareware offer-
ings. Some, such as hard disk back-
up utilities, are extremely serious -
all your valuable data depend on
their reliability and efficiency -
while others are little more than
frivolous.
The reason for the popularity of
IftH =r OUCH
iHttl ^ T>i3i:
5:»i ,' ir. m
st»i «* m «;
• •( tart SM sca«
MilMtbti Eat-Sts:
Sun a? tet Str:
3 3- )CZ)C
:£" :.>.:-, lei:
(.171
153>
MI Ttlt Effect!!
i.iit
1(!5J
l.MJ
tm
bftnxt —
;m kam
i.m
£
it K
t.m
P
3 F|iA«
I4SI
i.m
1UI
:ro
A backup utility is absolutely essential
for hard drive owners, and Diamond
Back is the best commercial one.
Capable shareware alternatives are
The Vault and Turtle
Diamond Edge, another "must have"
for hard disk owners. It can perform all
the routine disk maintenance tasks
needed to keep your vital data safe and
sound and speed up access to them
GemBench is particularly useful if
you want to examine the effects of
various hardware and software
combinations are having on your
system performance
What use
Anew
regular
column is
utilities?
Cesk Fi le Edit
CcdeHead lean Jimltr - C:\DESKICOW.RSC
Total; 135 I Selected; B I Paste; 8
■jo -P l1
.,£
:.>£
€
I
• - jk.
Ogc ..IBM
n
*i
2 IlS
fJS
,~3.
IB
M ..1 -PS .'.S
The default icons supplied in Atari's desktop are
unlikely to meet your needs for very long, but how do
you add new ones? CodeHead's Icon Juggler can
maintain different icon libraries and swap icons
between them
launched this
month by
Giinter Minnerup
utilities is simple. However well
designed, an operating system and
user interface entombed in ROM
chips cannot easily be updated. It is
"frozen" at a particular stage of its
development, and inevitably some-
one will come up with further
improvements on its built-in func-
tions, or discover new ones which
the original developers failed to
cater for.
The classic example is that of the
Atari file selector in
older versions of
TOS. While doing the
business for simple
floppy drive setups
with most files on the
root directory, hard
drive owners with
several partitions and
deeply nested folder
structures would
soon despair over its
unwieldy and spartan
file and drive handling.
Before long, replace-
ment file selectors
became as essential to
serious ST computing
as a road map to
driving.
Nor could anybody
ever accuse TOS and
E
® • JL
■JL
A
J
GEM of being speed demons.
Atari's developers concentrated on
reliability and compatibility rather
than squeezing the last ounce of
efficiency out of the available hard-
ware, so they left a vast field of
opportunities for clever hackers to
give the machine wings. Once you
have used NVDI, for example,
returning to a plain vanilla ST will
feel like walking through treacle by
comparison.
HELPERS
Many utilities live in the AUTO
folder, installing themselves at
boot-up and working in the back-
ground without you being con-
sciously aware of them. Others
are desk accessories, ready to be
activated from the Desk menu
when required. The rest are ordi-
nary programs, often kept in a spe-
cial Utilities folder, and are started
with a double click from the
desktop.
The growing popularity of multi-
tasking programs such as MTOS -
itself, of course, a utility - opens up
new methods of accessing the little
helpers, whatever you happen to
be doing at the moment.
The vast choice, however, cre-
ates its own problems. Which utili-
ties are the right ones for your
setup? What exactly can they do
for you? Since the best utilities
often drive the hardware to its lim-
its, problems of incompatibility are
inevitable. Many a system crash is
caused by conflicting AUTO folder
programs or accessories, and some
large applications have a distinct
dislike of certain utilities such as
replacement file selectors or graph-
ics accelerators.
The documentation is sometimes
a bit skimpy, especially with public
domain utilities. Magazine reviews
tend to concentrate on major new
releases but rarely reflect long-
term experiences of daily use.
Help is now at hand, however.
This new column, the first of its
kind in an Atari magazine, is dedi-
cated to helping you make the most
of your system by giving in-depth
coverage and information of the
type so hard to get hold of from
other sources.
Many years of experience with
Atari computers will be made avail-
able to you in the form of hints and
tips for beginners, solutions to
incompatibility problems, compar-
isons between different PD, share-
ware and commercial offerings
addressing the same problem, and
regular updates on new versions
and releases.
In keeping with the interactive
philosophy of Atari ST User, there
will be a section taking up ques-
tions and queries from you, the
readers. From NVDI to NeoDesk,
the Universal Item Selector to
Diamond Backup, Imagecopy to
MultiTOS - this page is where you
can find the answers!
Atari ST User August 1 994 |^
A A F WEAVER a
atar, ENGINEERING ATAR
181a Brecknock Road, LONDON N19 SAB. Tel: 071 267 3308
VDVB ©DdlLV ©DOS V@W'(LlI BWBG3 DOBSlD £?©/£
Upgrades, Repairs, Hardware for ATARI ST/FM/E & FALCON Computers.
JOYSTICKS Trackballs. Mice,
Autofire Mouse Emulators, Leads,
Switches
TOS UPGRADES 2.06 & 4.04
2.06 TOS + Switcher, Free Multitos
AHDICPXT64 for STEM, T68 for
STE Official Compo Upgrade £65
Falcon TOS 4.04 £40
ACCELERATORS T26 £170. T36
£255, Eagle/Mighty Sonic 32Mhz
03OE170/E220
IBM EMULATORS PC Speed £65,
AT Speed £129, Falcon Speed £229
AUDIO We car, supply almost anything!
DIGITAL INTERFACES
Sony/Philips £125
SDIE345
Adat £475
Midi Lead £5
8 x 15 Midi Muttiport £205
SEQUENCERS, SAMPLERS, digital audio
Concerto £35 Stereo Master £40
Muscom £45 Quartet £50
Muscomll £80 fiepLay Stereo £80
Irakcom £80 Clantv £99
Replay 16 £130 D tot) Edit £150
to * 4T/FX £295 Audio Master £209
+ S/PDI £332 NotatorLooic £450
Digitaoepro £475 dBase Audio £777
MONITORS True Colour Systems
14'S!iatp remote 40 channel SCART RGB TV £165
1 4' Merovrtec SBGA Multisync £295
Falcon Adaptors £10
VIDEO Blowup £12. Overscan £35.
Screen Blaster £69. Reflex £165
OIGITISERS Videomasler ST/Falcon
£70V£99. Villi 12 £1 50. Screen Eye t
Plus Studio Photo £250
GENLOCKS Graffiti £153.
Multigen£350
DRIVES t SCSI SUB SYSTEMS
Power Blitz Turbo Drive £65,
1.44 Int. Upgrade £79
Panasonic/Sony CD Rom
Multisession dual speed £185,
Maxtor 290Mb £387, 345Mb
£467 IBM 1Gb "Spitfire" £877,
2Gb £1340, 4Gb £2795, Hewlett
Packard Dal 2 to 8Gb DOS £946,
4- 16Gb DDS2 £1260, Magneto
Optical 1.3Gb £2189. Maxoptix
1.3Gb MO £2412
NETWORKING + C0MMS
Bio Data, Ethernet,
Power/Midinet, ST Stalker £34
SPARE PARTS * CONSUMABLES
All ATARI spares are available as
we are an Agent for the
ATARI DISTRIBUTION
CENTRE
Phone Now for our incredible prices and
FREE advice on upgrades & expansions*
Ask about our extended warranty service
PD WAREHOUSE
The PD WAREHOUSE has 1000s of disks in its catalogue, and most of them
are only £1 .35 each, if you'd like a copy of this printed catalogue simply send a
50p stamp, A4 SSAE or IRC and we'll do the rest.
We stock ACCOUNTS, ARTS, BUSINESS, EDUCATION, GAMES,
MUSIC, PROGRAMMING, PUBLISHING AND MUCH, MUCH MORE
If it's commercial software you're after then please ask for a
list when ordering, we'd be only too happy to send you our
latest offerings Telephone: m n^-i nn [fi-i
071 267 3308 «"■ »lH «"■ »»H
Please note all personal callers must make an appointment before calling at our premises.
PD WAREHOUSE, 181a Brecknock Road, LONDON N19 5AB.
PD Warehouse
The M of Public Domain,
uwumare 5 Shareware
Ring, write or fax for your
FREE Gopy today!
™ZT TEL: 0983 756056
?ot~ 4 FAX: 0983 755800
Yes, our new printed catalogue is available now
totally free of charg e - simply ring, write or fax
and we will rush a copy to you in the next post!
For all the latest in PD plus incredible offers on
commercial products such as Easy Text
Professional, Beginners Guide to Stos, Mr.
Smart's Big Time, Family Roots, etc. Order
your copy today and join the 26,000 Atari cus-
tomers who already use our service.
GFA-BASIC for Atari ST
Special Offers (while existing stocks last)
GFA-BASIC 3.5 Interpreter
GFA-BASIC 3.5 Compiler
GFA-BASIC G-Shell
GFA Assembler
GFA Basic and Assembler tutorial
GFA Raytrace
Order NOW by post orphone.using VISA, MASTERCARD or
cheque. Please add for postage £2.00 UK or £5.00 Europe.
Please make cheques payable to:
Special Price Normal Price
only £20.00 □ £50.00
only £20.00 □ £30.00
only £10.00 □ £20.00
only £10.00 □ £25.00
only £10.00 □ £20.00
only £10.00 □ £20.00
I
GFA
DATA MEDIA (UK) LTD
GFA DATA MEDIA UK LTD
BOX 121 Wokingham
Berkshire RG11 5XT
Tel: 0734 794941
Fax: 0734 890782
VISA/MASTERCARD hiirber
I I I I I I I I I I II I I I
Expiry Date Amount
III £l I I.I I I
Name / Address
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
I I I I I I I I I I
Atari ST User August 1 994
Unless you've been down a
well for the past few
months, you can hardly
have missed the launch of
the Orange mobile phone network.
It's not just another mobile
phone system like Cellnet and
Vodafone because it's an all-digital
network, with digital data efficiently
transmitted at a frequency of
around 1,800MHz. The voice chan-
nel is converted to/from a
14/16,000 bps data stream by the
phone.
That's why Orange costs
between a half and two-thirds less
to use than Cellnet and Vodafone,
not to mention the fact that the
phones are a lot cheaper to call
from BT and Mercury land lines.
The good news for computer
users is that, this September,
Orange will take the wraps off
its mobile data service. Forget
modems, you simply plug the
serial output of your computer
into a tiny black box (that
formats the data for the Orange
network), which plugs into the
Nokiaphone.
For data calls leaving or entering
Orangeade
Steve Gold reports on the latest news and
products in the comms world
the Orange network, Hutchison
have installed a bank of modems at
their Bristol headquarters that con-
vert the digital data stream to/from
a standard modem call.
Confusing? Not really, if you
regard the Orange phone network
as a packet data network like BT's
Dial Plus or CompuServe's global
data network.
When the data service launches,
it will mean real mobile datacomms
at 9,600 bps. And, unlike Cellnet or
Vodafone, there will be no prob-
BT get their act together
You won't find discount prices in your local BT phone shop, but you
will find a new generation of multimedia 'kiosk' PCs instead.
These touch 'n' look systems allow you to browse through the tech-
nical specifications of all of BT's hardware and service offerings.
The system is worth checking out, if only to familiarise yourself
with the range of services that BT is offering. During the summer BT
will be updating their kiosk systems with details of caller line identifica-
tion (CLI).
CLI, which is being tested in parts of Scotland and in Bristol this sum-
mer, allows identifi-
cation of who's
calling before you
pick up your phone
handset. It will also
allow you to auto-
matically call back
your last few
callers without
looking up their
number. CLI will
have a number of
important ramifica-
tions for modem
users in the next
few years.
In the short
term, it will allow
you to bypass
ID/password sys-
tems on some
online systems, as
your phone's CLI ID will allow you access to services, with the charges
billed to yourhome or office phone number. In the longer term, it will
allow intelligent call routing.
For example, suppose you're in Watford and dial the local Dial Plus
access number to log into CompuServe. By sensing your phone's ID,
the CompuServe network could tell you that it would be cheaper to
dial direct to the main London CIS port. That's in the future of course,
but it shows what CLI can do.
These terminals, found in BT shops,
provide a wealth of techy information
lems with noisy radio channels.
The Orange network is all digital,
so any corrupted data packets will
automatically be retransmitted.
Now the bad news; even
though Orange is cheaper to use,
its phones cost from £249
upwards. The reason is simple -
there's no big fat commission paid
to the dealer out of your line
rental and exorbitant call charges
on Orange.
On Cellnet or Vodafone's ana-
logue networks, the commissions
actually
subsidise
the pur-
chase price '
of a phone
to the tune
of £200 or
more. That
Cellnet or
Vodafone phone you see at
£99 in the adverts really costs
around £299 - the same price as
the Orange phone.
Orange: 0800 168168
Robotics restyle portable modems
Against a continuing onslaught from the battery-powered Pace
Microlin and the recently launched Mobyfax modem (see story this
page), US Robotics have revamped and restyled their Worldport
series of modems.
And not before time. The Worldport modems were looking pretty
much the same as when USR acquired New York-based Touchbase
three years ago - boxy and less than stylish.
The new Worldport modems are available in two flavours - a £199;
2,400bps data/9,600 bps fax unit and a 19,200 bps data/9,600 bps fax
version with cellular capabilities. Pricing on the higher specification
Worldport will be announced when it ships later this summer.
Clive Hudson, USR's managing director, seemed surprised when I
mentioned that his £199 modem was
about to be undercut by Pace's Mobyfax.
I suspect that he'll cut the price of the
basic Worldport down to £99 before
long, matching the Mobyfax.
US Robotics: 0800 225252
The new look
WorldPort portable
fax/modem from USR
Pace launch Mobyfax
Mobyfax is the unusual name for a new portable modem from Pace
MicroCommunications.
Launched at the Networks '94 show in Birmingham in late June, the
£99 modem is battery powered, works to 2,400bps data and 9,600bps
fax, and comes with all the necessary cables to run the unit "out of the
box," according to Dave Curl, marketing manager of Pace.
"We're also bundling comms software, and starter kits for the
AlmacBBS and CompuServe online systems. At this price, we think the
modem will sell to users who've never considered buying a modem
before," Curl told me, shortly before the Networks show.
The unique selling points (USPs) for the Mobyfax are that it's portable
and battery powered, comes with all the gubbins to use it out of the
box, and matches the price of similar desktop modems.
Pace Micro Communications: 0274-532000US
Atari ST User August 1 994 [■
COLOUR KITS for MONO PRINTERS
Ever wished vou'd bought a colour printer instead of a mono one? Wouldn't it be nice to print out pictures in
colour? Now you can with Atari "FlexiKolor Kit". Each Atari FlexiKolor kit comes complete with everything
you need to print in colour, including superb software. The colour kit is simple to use, the ribbons fit exactly
the same way as your black ribbons so it will not affect your guarantee. Also on all models listed below
paper alignment is automatic, you do not have to manually align. PRINTS AS GOOD AS COLOUR PRINT-
ER. If your printer is not listed below please phone. Atari FlexiKolor kits for Star LC10, LC20, all Star 24 Pin.
Panasonic 1080/81/1123/1124. Epson FX80, LQ100, LQ400, LQ800 etc. Citizen 120D+, NEC P6, P6+,
Seikosha 1900+. Please note colour kits come complete with coloured ribbons. COMPLETE KIT £39.95
I
I
I
FLEXIDUMP PLUS 2 I T-Shirt Printing Ribbons
THE COLOUR SOFTWARE FOR YOUR COLOUR PRINTER 1 1 PRINT ON NORMAL PAPER IRON ON T-SHIRT
TOP
NOW
* Total colour control
* Balance control for picture enhancement
* Select area to be printed
* Select size to be printed
:&££ lSB5i£S5£
* Ink correction
* Automatic poster mode for larger than A4
* Gamma correction (fully adjustable and saveable)
* Spooler for colour letterheads etc
* Multiple copy control
•k Colour correction
* Colour/mono catalogue function
* Imports a large range of file types including (IMG)
larger than screen size, tiny, Spectrum 512, IFF, Degas, Neo, IFF
(Amiga), HAM (Amiga) yes you can even print Amiga pics.
* Colour separation (Print colour on your Bubble Jet)
* Dot pattern control
* Pattern rotate
* Ideal for T-shirt printing
* Now with 'smooth' control, get rid of those jagged edges.
* Large range of dithering (dot partem) modes.
* Run in any resolution, view, manipulate and print in any other
resolution
* Colour catalogue function will print a miniature of each picture
configurable between 1 to 8 across
* Will drive 9 or 24 pin Star, Citizen Swift, Panasonic, NEC,
Epson, Canon, HP Deskjet 500C, 550C etc.
STILL ONLY £39.95 inc
UPGRADE FLEXIDUMP TO FLEXIDUMP PLUS 3,
ONLY £14.95 inc. RETURN MASTER DISK
4 Colour Citizen Swift £29.95
4 Colour Citizen Swift (Reload) £14.95
4 Colour Star LC10 £14.95
4 Colour Star LC200 9 Pin £19.95
4 Colour Star LC200 9 Pin (Reload) £12.95
4 Colour Star LC200 24 Pin £29.95
4 Colour Star 24 Pin (Reload) £14.95
4 Colour Seikosha SL95 £29.95
4 Colour Seikosha SL95 (Reload) £14.95
1 Colour Citizen 120D/Swift £11.95
1 Colour Star LC10 £11.95
1 Colour Star LC200 9 Pin £11.95
1 Colour all Star 24 Pin £11.95
1 Colour Epson FX80/LQ400/MX80 £11.95
1 Colour Epson LX80 £11.95
1 Colour Epson FX100 £11.95
1 Colour Panasonic KXP 1080 £11.95
1 Colour Taxan/Canon 1080A £11.95
Heat transfer Pens 5 large red/orange/yellow/green/
blue, Large pens have a marker size nib £14.95 a set
Heat transfer Pens 5 small red/orange/yellow/green/
blue, Small pens have a fine nib .£12.95 a set
"TRANSFERLAQ" for putting prints onto ceramic, glass,
aluminium etc. (for use with T-Shirt ribbons and inks) .£14.95
This is only a small part of our range.
Please phone for other printer types
How to order: Enclose cheques/PO made payable to:
CARE ELECTRONICS or use Access/ Visa
ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT AND CARRIAGE
Order Line 0923 894064
CARE ELECTRONICS
Dept STU, 15 Holland Gardens, Garston,
pa Watford, Herts, WD2 6JN. n—
gj 3 Tel: 0923 894064 Fax: 0923 672102 ■§■
Printer Ribbons
Don't throw away your plastic printer ribbon cases
when the ribbon wears out. Just take the top off,
take out the old ribbon and reload it with a new
one. It's simple. Full instructions supplied. Black
reloads from as little as 99p each.
Colour Printer Ribbons
Reloads for.-
Star LC200 9 Pin 4 Colour (Normal Ink)
1 Reload - £5.99 5 Reloads - £23.95
Star 24 Pin 4 Colour (Normal Ink)
1 Reload -£6.99 5 Reloads - £29.95
Citizen Swift 4 Colour (Normal Ink)
1 Reload - £6.99 5 Reloads - £29.95
Panasonic KXP2180/2123 4 Colour (Normal Ink)
1 Reload - £6.99 5 Reloads - £29.95
Seikosha SL95 4 Colour (Normal Ink)
1 Reload - £6.99 5 Reloads - £29.95
Ink ribbons also available in Gold, Silver, Magenta,
Orange, Purple, Brown, Green, Blue, Red for a wide
range of printers.
Special re-ink for Panasonic printers, Star LC200 9-pin,
Epson LQ100 black bottle will re-ink 100+ ribbons ....£9.95
No Mess Ink Refills for HP Deskjet
PAINTJET AND CANON BUBBLEJETS
"CARE THREE PACK" will refill HP51608A Cartridge 3 times. The
Canon BC-01 /SJ4S Cartridge 3 times. Three Pack available in Yellow,
Magenta, Cyan, Red, Blue, Green, Brown, Purple, Black £14.98 each.
TRICOLOUR PACK" 3 refills of Yellow, Magenta and Cyan £17.95.
"CARE SIX PACK" will refill HP51608A Cartridge 6 times. The
Canon BC/01 Cartridge 6 times.
6 PURE BUCK REFILLS ONLY £24.93
Please state type when ordering
Print Head Recovery Fluid for unblocking inkjel/bubblejet
cartridges, 18ml bottle £5.95
Handbook
ISSUE #3 IS OUT NOW!
Have you read the latest ST/E magazine yet?
If not you 're missing out and getting left behind. The very best
mag available for P/D and Shareware, stories, articles, news,
reviews, competitions, charts, and lots lots more!!
ONLY £2.50 (me p+P)
The latest paper Pased magazine,
comes complete with a free
Cover (frisk
Full of games and utilities, this issue is a real blockbuster,
order your copy now from us direct or from
participating Public Domain Libraries.
(check Atari press for details)
Please make cheques/postal orders payable to:
WRIGHT & HAYES GRAPHICS
Send your order along with payment to:
Wright & Hayes Graphics,
J Fordhouse Lane, Stirchley, Birmingham, B30 2NH.
TEL: (021) 459 4340
CALAMUS 109m Only £69.00
(Minimum req/1 meg/mono monitor)
CALAMUS SL Only £199.00
(Minimum req/ 2 meg/Hard drive/mono monitor)
CALAMUS FONTS PACK Only £14.95
(10 disks)
OUTLINE ART V.3 Only £199.00
RAINBOW PAINT (NEW) (Falcon) £29.95
DEGAS ART TUTOR Only £8. 99
EASY TEXT PROFESSIONAL DTP
( I meg minimum) Only £35.95
EASY TEXT VECTOR Only £36.95
(2 meg min/h-drive)/mono monitor)
EZ-ART PROFESSIONAL (NEW) Only £29. 95
EASY STITCH (new Only£15.95
FAMILY ROOTS 2 (NEW) Only £29.95
MR SMARTS BIG TIME £24. 95
BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO STOS £32.95
(6 13 page ringbound manual & 2 disks)
STARK RA VING BONKERS £8. 99
(Cobbledick latest)
SPECULATOR £9.99
DDDS 10 Only £3.50
DDDS 50 Only £16.00
DDDS 100 Only £29.00
DDDS 250 Only £67.50
WE ALSO STOCK HIGH
DENSITY DISKS
WE STOCK INKJET
REFILLS
Sponsors and
Promoters of the
Games Challenge to
be held at London
and Bristol Atari Shows
July 30-3 7 - See press
for details
Hb,m€U - Human Extraction and Rescue
Operation coming to a monitor near you soon
See us at the official Atari Shows and enter the Games Challenge
Atari ST User August 1 994
and li ♦ life ♦ t
With a good masthead,
attractive grid and a
sensibly chosen body
typeface, your news-
letter should be starting to look
polished and professional. All that
remains, once the text is roughly
laid out on the grid, is to add a few
headlines and then start the
process of tidying it up.
This can sometimes take longer
than any other stage - on a four-
page newsletter, the slightest
change to one story can have quite
an effect on others. Add a cross-
head, for example, and a story may
have to reflow through dozens of
frames, particularly if you have
imported the text as a single file.
This should be avoided - always
import each story individually or in
groups as a few extra minutes
spent doing it this way will save
hours of tedious adjustment later.
INVITING
Once you have an idea of where
each story is going to be, it's time
to start thinking of how you're
going to make it look inviting to
read. There are dozens of what are
commonly called reader cues -
headlines, cross-heads, pulled
quotes and various graphic devices
- that act as road signs on the
journey through the newsletter.
They point to the start and end of
stories, help split them into
manageable chunks, highlight the
contents and reinforce the overall
message. Unfortunately they are
almost always under-used.
Headlines are an obvious
example of reader cues and, while
always used, not enough attention
is paid to them. The words can be
very important - as editor you
must improve on them wherever
possible. If nothing else, the
headline "JOHN SMITH WINS
COUNTY DISCUS CHAMPION-
Taking
your
cues
Andrew Wright rounds off the
newsletter series with some
reader cue techniques
SHIPS WITH RECORD-
BREAKING THROW" will fill up a
bit of space but "DISCUS RECORD
SMASHED AS SMITH TAKES
CUP" is a little more interesting.
Headlines need to be large to
make them stand out from the
body copy but fancy display fonts
should never be used and lower
case is generally bener than upper
case. Pay strict attention to
kerning, particularly in 20 point text
and above.
Cross-heads, otherwise known
as subheadings, are used to break
up long pieces of text. They have a
dual purpose in that they serve as
an anchor point for the eye and
help convey to the casual reader,
or someone simply scanning the
pages, what the story is about.
If a story isn't finished at the foot
of a page, make it obvious where
to go next. Use a jump line such as
"Continued on page x". Don't
forget continuation headings either
if stories are restarted over the
page.
Department headings can be
used to group items together or
tag an article's subject. For
example, an article entitled
"Bidding a slam" in the
accompanying bridge club
newsletter has a department head
across stating "BETTER PLAY" in
reversed-out lettering. Pulled
quotes are seldom used, which is a
pity because they are a very
effective way of attracting readers
to an article - if you choose the
right quote, that is. If we were to
choose one for this page, it might
be "Reader cues... act as road signs
on the journey through the
newsletter", a quote that sums up
the thrust of the article.
Dropped capitals, often called
drop caps, can be good for starting
articles. They are fiddly to set up
but invariably enhance a newsletter
page when used sparingly.
STAND OUT
Placing a well designed table of
contents on the front page of a
newsletter can often invite further
inspection - it may not otherwise
be obvious to some casual glancer
that the inside pages are just what
they want to read! It has to stand
out prominently and should either
be at the side or centred at the
bottom. The use of rules and
boxes is recommended, along with
page numbers that are larger than
usual.
One thing to avoid is too much
space between title and page
number - close them up or make
the numbers even larger.
Graphics should be used
carefully. If you think of your
newsletter as a cake, you should
treat graphics not as the cake, the
filling, nor even the icing, but the
little coloured balls that are often
sprinkled on top.
Restrict clip art to one per page,
if you feel you must use it at all,
and use boxes, rules, lines and fills
very, very sparingly. It's no use
spending several hours adding
reader cues that enhance
readability only to douse the pages
with graphics and distract the
readers' attention.
Desk File Edit Layout View Style Fornat Text Object Global
I
fnssv3a7,pgs
Tht QuvWhf
Rejwtafthe
Linwlnshirt
BrisjeSweiy
teiAsin.M
Ocssk heeds
Spalding Club wins
third major trophy
lottmipsujn&bfiiianH .ccastccour jjcil&NtfllferBfliporqim w i liii t n i ft ii
yjjiy/)flj> djr *A jfam ftrtmtmmy n[|,h tlftftlH TFif** '""F* "fti* i^fHif 4 %WI J
ilipjm «aiTohii£*. lAwm coiin jd Ionmjpsiuada!or&iita*t,ofi5e<na*f
Desk File Edit Layout View Style Fornat Text Object Global
fnssv3B8.pgs
> consequac. Duis autem vel euni
in lieadrerit in
lie esse niolescie
el ilium dolors eu
fecilisisacvero
usan ec iusco odio
li bian Jit praesenc
il delenic augue
e feugaic nulla
an ipsuni dolor sic amet,
"We dnly won
byawhUker-
the competition
was very good
: . . . .
enini ad minim "veniani, quis nosl—
cation ullamcorper si
loborcis nisi uc aliqui
coniniodo consequac
iYel eum iriure dolor i.
inYulpucacevelicessi
consequac, vel ilium
feugiac nulla facilisis
accumsan ec iusto od
qui bkndic praesent lupcacum zzi
lure i\n\nrr. rf fcneair riylla.
□
o
<U7BX
an
jausuejl
1
« i
Use every trick you can to make a newsletter interesting to look at and read
Pull quotes are a good way of attracting the reader's attention
Atari ST User August 1 994
The Iixiformative Guide
ATARI ST
RAVE NEW
WORLD!
Find out what the future of
entertainment holds for you
We investigate...
a Jiyi.'iir' JjJ
Wks
re« the jaguar in today's ma
r computer use
EWIRE:
ATAR
™ Rpnain* i ir
I RE
PAIRS
Repairs undertaken to Atari computers at £49.95 inclusive
of parts, labour, VAT and return postage/packing
Full technical support
Computers repaired in the quickest possible time
All machines will be overhauled with a full soak-test to ensure optimum reliability
Entrust your machine to the experts, full 90 day warranty
Repairs to disk drive and power supply also included
(extra charge possible if found to need complete replacement)
Repairs to other Atari systems undertaken - phone for details
Upgrades and expansions supplied and fitted - phone for details
£49.95
f
To take advantage of this exceptional offer, simply send or hand deliver your computer to our workshop complex,
address details below, enclosing this advertisement voucher, payment, fault description, return address,
along with your daytime and evening telephone number and we will do the rest'
Should you require Group 4 Security return delivery, simply add £5.00 to the repair charge.
COLLECTION SERVICE AVAILABLE
VISA
WTS Electronics Ltd Chaul End Lane Luton Bedfordshire LU4 8EZ Tel 0582 491949 (6 lines)
{We reserve the right to reject machines which, in our opinion, are beyond repair- Normal charge applies)
A
customer returns the
goods which you have
supplied him or her, for
what you consider to be
a spurious reason, and demands a
full refund.
The seemingly friendly, welcom-
ing couple who invited you around
to discuss installing a new kitchen
for them decide to cancel - after
you have drawn up detailed plans
and placed an order for units which
cannot be undone.
A person you know' from past
experience to be a troublesome
customer threatens to report you
to "the authorities" for refusing to
sell to him/her.
What do you do in these situa-
tions? Is the law on your side, or
could you be involved in expensive
legal action?
If so, even if you win, the time
and possibly the expense involved
could have a catastrophic effect on
your business.
Many small businesses make the
mistake of thinking it won't happen
to them, or that trying to pre-empt
such problems is a waste of time.
CLAUSES
The chances are, something like
this will happen to you sooner or
later. The business that has taken
the trouble to produce a fair and
reasonable set of terms of trading
will be the least likely to be caught
out.
The advantages of setting out
your terms and communicating
them verbally, by way of a notice,
or on paper, to customers are
enormous.
First and foremost, it will mean
there are no vague arrangements,
the customer realising from the
start that, for instance, a deposit
representing a percentage of the
total cost of an item or job is
required at a certain stage, that
cancellation of a contract after a
certain time means a deposit can-
not be returned, and that goods or
services will be provided on a par-
ticular date, or within a particular
timescale.
Remember, there are some
aspects you simply cannot control
Stay on good
terms
Pre-empting problems is much better
than waiting for them to happen, and
far less costly, too. Richard Williams
shows how your ST can help
ft File Edit Options Page Style Text Graphics Help
tv;
WAT AHEAD LTD
&rmi ccrsress - MS^XS'
Tirana! wmeivetston - giants
pernvsstpn lor A H, Otier ltd to
i.Ma.iietpnceThematMtpnce
01 pie tutorial shell Be m.99
eaiudmo VAT. Wey Ahead Is
current nolVAT-reoisterto.Pul
strcuu tcectme so h te Use.
-, ...... .... -., .... .-
Terms of Trading
djo a cDrrttincaisd Irs o Way
Aheap.
-::::,-.? Aheap apses o
praipecppieioimecnonaiioA
H. Othei UP at adiscounteP taie.
Pie discount Pepenpwtp on Pie
isiei ot sales achieved try A N,
OpieritP
when providing some kinds of ser-
vice. If you are a painter and deco-
rator and someone employs you to
paint the outside of their home,
you can hardly complete the job in
the next fortnight if it rains from
now until Christmas.
This is where clauses need to be
introduced excluding or limiting
your liability. Consumers have cer-
tain inviolable rights which every
business person dealing with the
public would do well to learn
about.
You will not escape these rights
simply by drafting your own conve-
nient exclusion clauses. However,
there is a very good chance that
clauses in a set of terms of trading
which are fair and reasonable will
win the approval of the courts.
Where does the ST fit in to all
this? If you want your terms of
trading to look professional - and
what self-respecting business per-
son doesn't? - make use of it, and
your printer, to produce the terms.
In addition, use it to draw up
specifications and agreements for
individual customers, keeping tem-
plates on disk which can quickly be
adapted to suit a new situation.
If you spell out exactly what the
customer is to receive,
and when, and what you
are to receive in return
at each stage, there will
be no doubts on either
side.
Anyone who is really
* tfcfcd W frs sxti period towo
: '.".•.- ". •■ : .'~1-
onlen wdJ be pfovtOed oy
Ahead, wfwti alio und t P4M
atwart) tte tow ot Soppy Or
iabefcig, pofflge. pxteoro.
prcv-ang printed irBonTWWf
,, i -...._, l
.': :'*. '■ ;--*■
»e second sunns tourweeks
efierjiatdaie. and so on. Based
en a marks pnet Ot V 3 J3,ine
ciitouwwrlt be applied asfW-
i :■;;:.--;;■ i attunil an ito
7. licence » copy c
only half hearted about entering
into a contract with you is more
likely to pull out at an early stage
when they see this small print,
potentially saving you a great deal
of money, or at least embarrass-
ment over having to return materi-
als ordered from suppliers.
That is not to say that you
should make your business docu-
ments look daunting. Quite the
opposite should apply, with some
or much of the text placed at the
back of the document, so as not to
deter genuine customers.
BAD DEBTS
There is a fine line between sen-
sibly looking after your business
interests and making your firm
appear like a Philadelphia law prac-
tice. Tread carefully, and you will
successfully pre-empt most prob-
lems without alienating the people
you depend on most - your
customers.
Apart from being taken to task
- and, if you are really unlucky, to
court - by, hopefully, a very small
minority of your customers, there
are other potential disasters lurk-
ing which sensible planning, and
some time spent on
your ST, can help
prevent
The major fear of
many businesses con-
cerns bad debts. Rule
number one is that if
you are in business, you must not
be afraid to ask for money.
The British are generally not
good at this. If you suffer this
problem, use your ST to produce
invoices which you can, if you
wish, hand over without comment,
but which will still leave people in
no doubt when they are expected
to pay. Wherever possible, try to
get them to pay in advance.
Never assume that people
require credit. Offering a discount
to those who pay in advance, or
within a certain time, can be a use-
ful lever. Late payers, on the other
hand, could be penalised by your
charging interest on the outstand-
ing amount.
DEPOSIT
If this is part of your terms of
trading, and your customer was
provided with a copy, then they
have little option in law. In prac-
tice, you may sometimes find
yourself weighing up the advan-
tages of charging the interest
against the importance of retaining
the customer's goodwill if pay-
ment is offered quickly after a
reminder.
If you are providing a service,
most people will balk at paying
anything more than a deposit until
they've seen at least some
progress.
Make sure that the deposit ade-
quately covers the cost of
any material you need to order for
the job, and preferably a little
more, just in case the worst
happens and you receive a call
telling you to forget the whole
thing.
Remember, it is your right to be
paid. Stand up for that right, and
you can pre-empt a host of possi-
ble financial problems.
Set out your terms
clearly using your
DTP package or
word processor, and
your customers will
be in no doubt that
you mean business
Looks like it's been a bad
month for bad debts, if this
graph produced in Microdeal's
Personal Finance Manager Plus
is anything to go by. But
problems could have been
avoided with careful planning
Desk File Update Report Setup Options Help
«l -
MS
a
...A
B7/B5/M IVS7/M
Atari ST User August 1 994
back issues
w<\/jm
a,- STUSEFt
k.
FALCON'S s~ «T\
MULTIMEDIA __ /.: . -.
h
Z
r b
nd bind
Have you missed one of our past issues? Well now's your chance to
bring your collection up to date - but hurry stocks are limited!
CO hacks; w
^™ I aTT siostowna
i C50+~' —
Ic
FEATURES: Multimedia explained,
monitor round-up, picture viewing
utilities and how to compute safely
REVIEWS: Mouse Tricks 2. John the
Composer. DataPulse Plus,
Retouch/Didot, NameNet, DataLite
ON DISK: Video Master software and
TmePaint demo
Jm DISKS
?reTr71
FEATURES: Genlocking, home accounting.
how software reaches the shop floor and
jargon buster
REVIEWS: Protext 6, Chagall. Sweet Sixteen
and Ultimate Virus Killer 5.9
FREE: 32-page ST Action games supplement
ON TWO DISKS: Demos of Protext 6 word
processor and MicroProse's Dogfight air battle
FEATURES: Desktop Publishing
guide, Virtual Reality, Data
Compression
REVIEWS: Audio Master, DA s
Picture, Clarity 16. Thought!.
CP-GEN, Digit
ON DISK: Easy Text Plus VALUED AT £20
FEATURES:The world's greatest hacks,
replacement desktops compared, soft-
ware buyers' guide and Atari printing
bureaux
REVIEWS: Direct-to-disk recording soft-
ware. MuitiTOS. Pad 2 and SpeedoGDOS
ON DISK: STOS Compiler and STOS
VALUED AT £50
FEA TURES: Best software and hardware
recommendations and hardware buyers'
guide
REVIEWS: Omega II, Tabby, Studio
Photo, Raystart and Vidi ST (12)
FREE : 64-page booklet
ON DISK: Prism Paint II demo
FEATURES: 25 Essential Utilities,
Education, Atari Computers at
Birmingham University
REVIEWS: Copyist DTP, GEM-
View, Pixart
ON DISK: DA vector demo,
Photochrome v4
FEATURES: Improvisation programs.
professional Atari support and DTP
guide pt.1
REVIEWS: Video Titler, Falcon Speed,
View II, scanning solution and NVDI
2.51
ON DISK: Word Writer VALUED AT £50
FEATURES: Transform images using
morphing techniques
REVIEWS: Harlekin 3. Easy Text
Vector. Chroma 24, Mortimer and
Geneva
ONDISK:V\d\ ST (12) software
? VIDEO VlfXB
FEATURES: Video Vitals, Frankfurt
Music Show, CeBIT, Education
round-up
REVIEWS: Breakthru 2. True
images, Papyrus
ONDISK:G\? Image Processing,
Violence
FEATURES: Ray-tracing for Atari
computers, music on the Thames,
printer round-up and DTP guide pt2
REVIEWS: Atari Works. HP Portable
printer, Microvitec Cub-Scan monitor
and Super mon
ON DISK: Prodata VALUED AT £80
FEATURES: Memory upgrades, infor-
mation transfer, how to avoid mail
order misery
REVIEWS: Jaguar, Digitape. UVK 6.
Video
Master Falcon. DA Vector Pro, EdHak 3,
Maglx 2
ON DISK: Tempus 2 VALUED AT £40
*
f
'ATARI
111
ST USER
BREAK THE,
li
WpfESZZm
fcsaiiin
FEATURES: Speed, Noise Tracker guide,
education software, Digital Arts profile
AHr7£HV;SJ144 printer, fax modems
ON DISK: Walls of Illusion,
Noise Tracker
FOOTBALL
j WINNERS
SrUSER
lit M *
&*~ K^LJl
FEATURES: CD-ROM special, Virtual
Reality, Cybersex report
REVIEWS: That's Write 3, Cubase Audio.
Quill. Perfect Keys. Oracle
ON DISK: Marcel Wordprocessor and three
great games
li Atari ST User August 1994
ATARI
Store your magazines in
top condition with
this high quality
Atari ST User binder
Price
Order No.
July 1993 + disk
£3.50 ....
9259
9263
September 1993 + disk
E3.50 ....
October 1993 + disk
E3.50 ....
9264
November 1993 + disk
£3.50 ....
9265
December 1993 + 2 disks
£3.50 ....
9266
Christmas 1993 + disk
£3.50 ....
9267
January 1994 + disk
£3.50 ....
9268
February 1994 + disk
£3.50 ....
9269
March 1994 + disk
£3.50 ....
9270
9271
April 1994 + disk
£3.50 ....
May 1994 + disk
£3.50 ....
9272
9273
June 1994 + disk
£3.50 ....
July 1994 + disk
£3.50 ....
9274
Binder
£5.95 ....
9478
All prices include VAT.
Please place your orders using the Readers' Offers form on page 43 I
A
funny thing happened to
my Falcon the other day. I
was running the
lAtariWorks installation
program and two bombs appeared
on the screen. Clearly it didn't like
something in my system. After
some pretty unscientific research I
tracked down the culprit - the
NVDI screen accelerator. I quickly
disabled it and carried on.
This isn't the first time I've come
across problems with NVDI. I'm
slowly coming round to the fact
that it has definite problems in true
colour mode, particularly with pro-
grams like Imagecopy, Chroma
Studio 24 and TruePaint. Now I'm
not particularly interested in know-
ing which programmer is responsi-
ble - what matters is that various
incompatibilities do exist.
STABLE
There isn't a lot you can do
about it of course, especially if
you've forked out a lot of money
for NVDI. For 99 per cent of the
time you get a good return on
your investment and things roll
along much faster.
Despite the problems men-
tioned, it is a very stable program,
largely because it is a complete
rewrite of the VDI part of the
operating system rather than a sys-
tem patch like QuickST, TurboST
and Warp9.
Anyway the end result was that I
Getting up to
Warp speed
John Hetherington looks at
a sadly underrated utility
and delves deeper into DIY
dug out a program that I didn't
think I'd ever use - the upgraded
version of Codehead's Warp9.
Version 3.80 has been fixed to run
on the Falcon.
For half the price of NVDI, it
offers equally quick screen updates,
a built-in configurable screen saver
and a choice of no less than 72 dif-
ferent system fonts. What you
don't get is true colour mode
acceleration (although all Warp9's
other features work in true colour
mode) or MultiTOS compatibility,
\TWtS \Jl*mi
\ *TO
\ cupsto
\SKEMI
R£at» t!U3B0i ;E]0Q53 C:QSS_
fasUoadins feflfiPS.ST.Ptev
SSSISH —
wins »
6j*W.Q If uou nave en MHy version of TOS and enended r
bofioj several seconds for Ubtp 3 to run in the ieJTO fold]
ncce.n w other ftUTQ proorsm ml! oe "fast loaded".
SrS tsslioad "self, run nSNEFftST. PM end select a _ct
EJK KskeFast nil alter the file so that i
KStg also run R*efast on FftTCP£P5.PftG, if you use it,
1KWB before ksarp 3. -
If sou have !0S 1.1 or leler, do not use H*£Ffi51.
Background images
can be loaded in
Degas or Prism
Paint format (PNT)
CwWttbtlUB with Cujsssej
Falcon f reebie
Games that make the most of the Falcon's extra hardware aren't exactly
common, so it's nice to see a freeware attempt that uses sampled 8-bit
mono sounds (stereo samples are too big to distribute easily) and 256-
colour graphics.
Black Hole is a strange arcade game that runs only on VGA monitors,
though it does use a standard
ST joystick. I'd score it pretty
low on gameplay but it does
have 1.3Mb of good quality
sampled sounds in AVR format
and it is well worth
experimenting with.
The Black Hole - it's not in
the slightest bit addictive but
the sound is impressive
though it is compatible with
Geneva.
Warp9 comes on two disks
packed with all kinds of interesting
odds and ends. To be honest the
majority are different screen saver
modules but there are other utili-
ties such as a patch for
WordPerfect, a MultiDesk
upgrade, fonts and background
fills, a command post accessory
for configuring Warp9 on the fly
and a customiser program for
designing your own fills and edit-
ing the replacement screen fonts.
On top of that you get different
versions of Warp9 for the ST, TT
and Falcon.
CONFIGURABLE
Documentation is good, with a
manual addendum specifically for
3.80 and installation is straightfor-
ward. The main program is placed
in the AUTO folder, the com-
mand post accessory in the root
directory and that's all there is to
it. Of course, it helps if the fills,
fonts and other files are copied
onto the hard drive.
Warp9 is highly configurable.
For example, the Warp9 .DAT file
lets you specify various options
for various programs such as
whether or not to use a replace-
ment font or the system one;
whether to disable the screen
saver (Cubase doesn't work with
the saver enabled); and to set fast-
load options. It is even possible to
specify a particular screen font for
a particular program.
At the control panel you can
set various mouse acceleration
and wrap options, switch zoom
boxes on or off or switch
between the three different con-
figuration screens. I've never been
one for replacement screen fonts
Part of one of the more amusing EOS
modules - based on the famous "Flying
Toasters" Windows screen saver
but I have to admit that after some
experimentation I became quite
attached to one or two of them.
With Warp9 offering the ability to
load and display custom back-
ground (and system) fills and even
full colour images on the Falcon,
you can go a long way to customis-
ing your Falcon desktop.
MODULES
The Extend-O-Save modules
(the name given to the screen
savers) are a touch disappointing,
as colour support isn't universal
and many modules fail to run in the
Falcon's more exotic screen
modes, but the sheer range of
modules supplied makes it good
fun selecting and configuring them.
Some particularly interesting share-
ware modules are supplied,
which should keep you amused for
hours.
Warp9 appears to be faster than
NVDI if the utility Quick Index is
to be believed, but in practice
there's little difference. The only
time you notice the difference is
when you try and boot your Falcon
without either of them! Warp9
may not be as compatible as NVDI
and it may not be MultiTOS or
true colour compatible but it does
have one big advantage - it's much
cheaper (£29.95 from FaST Club
on 0602 4SS250) and there's more
to play with.
At the end of the day, what is a
Falcon for if not for fun?
A custom background
and the IBM font
Atari ST User August 1 994
FOR QUICK QUALITY WORK DONE AT COMPETITIVE PRICES
Upgrades -+- Engineering requirements
Low Cost upgrading
• NORMAL
SERVICE
£24.99 + parts
Free Quote
• GUARANTEED
SAME DAY SERVICE
+£10.00
computers received by
12.00 mid-day
also Monitors repaired Wf'-
Door to door pick up + delivery anywhere in the U.K.
or see us at our workshop in Centra] L
COMPUTER SERVICES
144, Tanner St., Tower Bridge, London SE1 2HG
Tel. 071-252 BBS 3
STEtoIMb £10.99
STE to 2Mb £49.99
STFM to 1Mb £39.99
STFM to 2.5Mb £79.99
TOS1.4 £25.00
TOS 2.06 £POA
Double Sided Drive £47.00
Power Supply £39.95
Power Supply (Exchange) £25.00
Fitting for the above from £15.00
A Wm ADVERTISERS' INDEX
A. F. Weaver 82
Analogic 57
Care Electronics 84
Compo Software 32, 33
Fast Engineering 90
Gasteiner IFC, 3
G.FA 82
Goodman 58
Ladbroke Computing 10
Merlin PD 58
MT Software 82
NewAgePDL 51
Power Computing IBC
Premier Mail Order 90
Special Reserve 9
System Solutions 6
Tumblevane 20
Wright & Hayes 84
WTS 86
T^tevpUen *7Jt<zii Oldest
Please send cheque / PO (made out to Premier Mail Order) / Access / Visa No. and expiry date to:
Dept STU 101, 9-10 The Capricorn Centre, Cranes Farm Road, Basildon, Essex SSI 4 3JJ. Tel: 0268-271 172 Fax: 0268-271 173
Telephone orders: Mon-Fri 9am-7 pm and Sat & Sun 10am-4pm, We Are Open 364 Days A Year
P&P and VAT is included for all UK orders. Please add £2 P&P for Europe and £3.50 for Rest of the World
Next day delivery service available £4 per item. Some titles may not be released at the time of going to press. Most titles are despatched same day, but can take up to 28 days (E&OE)
3D Construction Kit
A320 A ■:.: :.::■: :: y
A320 Airbus USA ...
Addoms FomiFy
Alien 3
Anolher World
Awesome..
Bl 7 Flying Fortress
Batman Returns
tottlehowks 1942
Bon vs the Spoce Mutants
Blue Angels
Bottle of Britain ...
Board Genius
Boston Bomb Club
Bully's Sporting Dons
Cadaver /The Payoff
Caesar
California Games 2
Cannon Fodder ..............
Championship Manager 93
Championship Manager 94 Season Disk
Championship Manager Definitive Edition
Championship Manager End of Season
Championship Manager Italia
Chaos Engine
ftit ii Qlion ■ ii
Cohort 2...
Colonels Bequest
Crime Cty .
Cruise for o Corpse
Crystal Kingdom Dizzy
Cybercon in
Cyberspace
DDoy
Discovery
Dizzy CoHeaion
Dizzy's Excelktnt Adventure..
Degtiaht _
DynobT
Elite 2 [Frontier! . .............
Elvira The Arcode Game
European Chompions
European Fooroo'' Chomp.onsnip .
European Super Soccer
F15 Strike Eogle 2 ....
FD19SteormF*h»...
F29...
Foce Off Hockey.. .
rcr'cs' : .'.:■ :s
.26.99
.22.99
..22.99
8 99
.19.99
.12.99
...9.99
..2199
1699
.10.99
...8.99
.8.99
.1199
.19.99
...899
8.99
.12.99
19.99
1699
..19.99
...16.99
8.99
..17.99
....9.99
...17.99
..16.99
.22.99
...19.99
12.99
. ...6.99
...12.99
.1499
..10.99
. 22.99
.22.99
6.99
.1699
.16.99
.2199
.19.99
,.19.99
.16.99
...17.99
.10.99
.16.99
...17.99
...14.99
...14.99
...10.99
899
...22.99
Fantasy World Dizzy ..
Fost Food Dizzy..
First Somurai + Mego lo Mania..
Flight Sim 2 Great Briioin Scenery
Flight Sim 2 Hawaiian Scenery
Flight Sim 2 Japan Scenery
Flight Sim 2 USA No 9 Chicago
Flight Sim 2 USA No 12 New York
Flight Sim 2 USA No. 7 Washington...,
Flight Sim 2 USANo II Detroit
Flight Sim 2 Western Europe Scenery
Flight Simulator 2
Footballer ol the Year 2
Formuki One Grand Prix
Fort Apache
Future Wars
Ghostbusters 2
Goal
Graham Goods (1 Meg) —
Graham Gooch Second Innings
Graham Taylors Soccer ChoMenge
Gunship
Hard Drivin 2
Hard Nova
Heroquest
Hill Street Blues
Hook
Hoyle's Book of Gomes 1. 2 or 3
Huckleberry Hound in Holywood
Indiana Jones & Fate ol Atlantis
Indranc Jones • lost Crusode
Int. 3D Tennis
Int. Rugby Challenge
Int. Sports Challenge |5 1 2K]
Johonqir Khan Squash
Jimmy While's Snooker
Killing Game Show
Kingmaker ..
Kings Quest 1 «„ HW
Kings Quest 2 or 3..
Knights of the Sky .
Laser Squod
Leander
Legends of Valour...
Leisure Suit Larry 1, 2 or 3...,
Lemmings 2 (The Tribes)
lemmings Double Pock
lethal Weapon
loom
lords of Chaos
lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge
6.99
6.99
...1999
...26.99
.13 99
...13.99
.13.99
...13.99
...13.99
...13.99
.13.99
..22.99
i.99
22.99
6.99
...10.99
7,99
..20.99
..19.99
,,,.11.99
899
.10.99
8.99
8.99
7.99
8.99
8.99
1299
8.99
8.99
...12.99
5.99
... 17.99
... 19.99
6.99
.12.99
9.99
...22.99
..1199
-10.99
...14.99
899
999
„M.99
..1199
..17.99
...19.99
899
1299
8.99
7.99
Lotus Trilogy „ 19.99
lure of the Temptress 1 2.99
Ml Tank Platoon 12.99
Manchester United Europe 7.99
Maniac Mansion 10.99
Megolwins 8.99
Merchant Colony 8.99
Metal Mutant 8.99
Midwinter 10.99
Midwinter 2 14,99
Mig29 1099
Nigel Monsell World Champ 19.99
Night Shit 10.99
No" Second Prin 17.99
Noddy's Wartime..... _ 16.99
Obilus 9.99
Operation Harrier 8.99
Operation Stealth 11.99
Parasol Stars 8.99
Pinboll Magic 8.99
Pirates 10.99
Police Quest 1 12.99
Police Quest 1 14.99
Police Quest 2 1199
Populous i Prom.sed lands 12.99
PowermongerSWWI Oota Disk 12.99
Premier Manager 17.99
Premier Manager 2 17.99
Prince ol Persio 6.99
Pro Tennis Tour 2 16.99
Pro-Tennis Tour 8.99
Pushover 8.99
RSI Baseball 2 7.99
Reach lor the Skies 19.99
Rick Dangerous 7.99
Risky Woods 8.99
Robin Hood 10.99
Robinsons Requiem 19.99
Robocop 3 10.99
Robocop 6.99
Rorke'sWt 6.99
Scrabble 20.99
Secret of Monkey Island .................... 1199
Sensible Soccer JW93) 1 6.99
Sensible World of Soccer 19.99
Shadow lands 8.99
Shinobi 7.99
Shuttle |see The Greatest]
Sim City + Populous 19.99
Sleepwalker 8.99
Slicks 14.99
Space Crusade
Space Quest 1 ..
Spate Quest 2 ..
Spellbound Dizzy
SlartJooe
Storm Master
Strides
Striker
Strip Poker 2 » Datodisk .
Super Space Invaders...
Superfighler
Superski 2
Switchblade II
locticol Manager ■ English
Tennis Cup 2
Tetris
The Adventu'es ol Robin Hood
The Final Conflict
Hie Greatest
Their Finest Hour - Battle of Br.toin.
Their Finest Mission
Thomas the Tank Engine
Thunderslrike
Toki
Trivial Pusuil
UMS Compiksrion
Utopia..
War in the Gull..
.'. -i- 3: :
Winter Supersports
Wizkid
World Class Leaderooord..
WWF1
WWF2
ZokMcKroken
Zoo)
8,99
12.99
10.99
6.99
8.99
8.99
12.99
7,99
8.99
6.99
8.99
17.99
8.99
8.99
19.99
8.99
14.99
12.99
6.99
21.99
12.99
9.99
6.99
7.99
8.99
6.99
27.99
8.99
20.99
12.99
16.99
10.99
10.99
8.99
8.99
10.99
8.99
SPECIAL OFFERS
Breach 2 5.99
Chaos Strikes Back 5.99
Charge of the Light Brigade 5.99
European Championship 1992 5.99
Kick Off 2 Final Whistle 5.99
Kick Off 2 Winning Tactics 5.99
Noddy's Playtime 16.99
Psycho Selection Soccer 9.99
Sabre Team 9.99
Shadoworlds 9.99
World Class Rugby (5 Notions) 9.99
JOYSTICKS/ACCESSORIES
10 Capacity 3.5" Disk Box 1.99
40 Capacity 3.5" Disk Box 4.99
50 Capacity 3.5" Disk Box 5.99
80 Capacity 3.5" Disk Box 6.99
100 Capacity 3.5" Disk Box 7.99
Cheetah 125+ 7.99
Cheetah Bug 11.99
Competition Pro Extra 14.99
Freewheel Steering Wheel 24.99
Gravis Adv. Switch Joystick 22.99
Gravis Gamepod 15.99
Mouse Mat 1 .99
Quick Joy Top Star 17.99
Quick Joy 2 Turbo 10.99
Quick Joy Jet Fighter 10.99
Quick Joy Pedafs 17.99
Suncom lac 2 7.99
Suncom Slik Stick 5.99
Wico "Q" Stick 4.99
3 Button Mouse 10.99
EDUCATIONAL
Better Maths (12-1 6 GCSE) 13.99
Belter Spelling 18+) 13.99
Cave Moze 18-121. 9.99
Fraction Goblins IB 13) 9.99
"(UNDER 6) 6.99
6-8) 6.99
8+) 6.99
UNDER 5| 16.99
57) 16.99
7+1. 16.99
OJ
Fun School 2
Fun School 2
Fun School 2
Fun School 4
Fun School 4
Fun School 4
Junior Typist (510) 10.99
■ typist . .
Magic Maths (4^| 13.99
Moths Dragons (61 3| 9.99
Maths Mania 18-1 21... 13.99
Noddy's Play Time 13-7) 16.99
Picture Fractions (7101 9.99
Reasoning with Trolls [5-1 2| 9.99
The Three Bears 13.99
TidyTheHouse(610) 9.99
3.5 BLANK DISKS
1KY11U1W PIKISK5N UNlMNWu RKYCliD
10 7.99 6.49 5.99 4.50
20 14.50 11.99 10.99 8.50
30 21.99 17.49 15.99 12.00
40 28.49 21.99 20.49 15.00
50 35.00 26.00 23.99 17.50
100 65.00 49.99 44.99 35.00
IJ Atari ST User August 1 994
Power Computing Ltd
Sneer Bedford MK4 1 7 R \V
mo^tf
Power Drives
PC720B, the award winning external
disk drive which includes a virus blocker,
built-in Blitz Turbo and is able to boot from
drive B.
PC720B £60
PC720P (inc. PSU) E55
PC720I (internal) £39.95
(360K upgrade drive, needs case modification)
PC720 01 (official) £45
(720K internal replacement drive)
Drive B Cable
If you have an internal drive that is not
compatible with 'boot from drive B', rhis
cable will solve your problem.
Drive-B cable £9.95
B
t z Turbo
Back-up disks at lightning speeds, Blitz
copies from the internal to the external drive
and cleverly by-passes your ST's controller
chip. In around 40 seconds you can back-up
an ST disk, whar's more you can switch
between your disk drive and Blitz Turbo
without disconnecting yout Blitz interface.
(1988 Copyright act applies)
Blitz Turbo....
£25
Power Scanner
The award winning scanner from Power
Computing allows you to scan up to
400DPI in real-time greyscale, with autoscan
rate detect. The scanning software included
allows you ro edit and manipulate any image
you scan.
Power Scanner £99
Power Scanner with OCR £149
Ring Interruption
Use with Ultimate Ripper or SuperMon.
Stop games or programs in their tracks, search
for infinate lives and hack with code. A press
of the key and the program is restarted.
Ring Interruption £1 5
Memory
1MB Simm .
..£35
C a I C o m
3 2b
External fax and data modem including
these many features:
External Fax & Data modem
Supports up to 57,600 bps
Full Haynes AT command set supported
Supports class 1 , 2 and 3 fax commands
Call back security
Optional power on auto-dial
Supports error correction + detection
Leased line support
Supplied with Amiga and PC software for
Windows
All cables 6c Power supply included
Calcom v.32 bis £169
Includes modem software
Epson Printers
The LQ-150 is a fasr quiet 24-pin colour
dot matrix printer. With draft printing speeds
of up to 216 cps and high quality colour text
and gtaphics ourpur. The LQ-150 has a built-
in 50 sheet papet cassette with automatic
paper feed, and an optional tracror unit for use
with continuous and multi-part stationery.
Operating either fat or flipped on its back -
to save desk space - the LQ-150 incorporates
Epson's ESC/P and ESP/P2 ptintet languages,
ensuting compatibility with most popular
software packages. It also comes supplied with
Windows printer driver for use on your IBM
as well.
Power Computing being an Epson distributor
and dealet can supply all Epson products at
uncompromising prices.
Epson LQ-150
i- cable
£229
Tractor unit ....
£29.95
£5.95
Colour ribbon .
£15.95
Epson LQ-100
i- cable
£209
SuperMon
SuperMon comes with all the featutes
of the 'Ultimate Ripper' and more. Some of
the features included wirh SuperMon are:
Program switchet- allows to programs ro be in
the memory simulraneously and switched
between at the touch of a key, Printer spooler-
allows files to be ptinted at the same time as
other tasks, Comprehensive debugger- dis-
assemble programs and step through them,
intercept OS calls, search memory or find
where a routine is called from automatical-
ly, Diagnostics funcrion- check the
intetnal functioning of yout ST disk
analyset, custom format disks, tead/wtite
sectors, hide files, Utilities- the SupetMon
also has many utility functions available,
including reset proof RAM disk, mouse trap
function, time display, scteen snapshot and
50/60Hz toggle.
Ultimate Ripper £25
Including SuperMon £35
M
see
a n e o u s
£15
£17.99
Optical Mouse
£29.95
Replacement optical mat ....
£10
100 Branded disks + box
£49
£5
Inttudet l joystick
£29.99
Maverick 1 joystick
£15.99
Apache 1 joystick
£7.99
3w
Name
Address
Telephone No.
System Owned
Desctiption
I enclose a cheque/PO fot £
Credit Card No.
Expiry Date
Signature
Order For
. Postcode .
Delivery next day £5.00 2-3 days £2.50 Saturday £10.00 deliveries are subject to stock availability.
Please make cheques payable to Power Computing Ltd
Prices are valid for the month of publication only. E & OE. All prices include VAT. Power Computing Ltd
1994. Goods are sold subject to our standard terms and conditions of sale and are available on request.
Specifications and prices are subject to change without notice, and all trademarks are acknowledged. All
Power Computing Ltd products come with a back to base 12 month guarantee.
TEL 0234 273000
FAX 0234 352207
Top quality
software for
your ST each
and every
feature-packed
■ issue
Exclusive
Blow
up a close
friend in
this brilliant two-
player game demo
with split-screen display
mim-
UTOPOS
CoverDisk
Add text, graphics and
*■ sampled sound effects
^ to your home videos
with this excellent
video titling
■ software
STart-it! - Organise your accessories and AUTO folder programs with this utility
" f - Add two new screen resolutions to your STE with this great program
B|
Video Supreme
Create and record
outstanding graphics and
title screens to your videos,
including digitised sound
effects,
with this
excellent
video titling
software
Utopos
Superb split-screen two player
game with lightening fast eight-way
scrolling and brilliant graphics
STart-lt
Organise your programs and
accessories with this excellent boot
manager utility
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11